ASTER 
NEGATIVE 


NO.  94 


12 


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Author: 


Ellis,  Ellen 


Title: 


An  introduction  to  the 
history  of  sugar  as  a.. 

Place: 

Philadelphia 

Date: 

1905 


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MASTER   NEGATIVE   * 


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Ellis,  Ellen  Deborah,  1878- 

...  An  introduction  to  the  history  of  sugar  as^SM. 
modity,  by  Ellen  Deborah  Ellis  ...  Philadelphia,'T] 
J.  C.  Winston  co.,  1905. 


2  p.  U  117  p. 
series,    vol.  iv) 


23"''°.     (Bryn  Mawr  college  monographs.    Monographi 


Bibliography:  p.  113-117. 

Appeared  first  as  author's  thesis  (ph.  d.)  Bryn  Mawr,  1905. 


1.  Sugar— Hist.    2.  Sugar  trade. 


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An  Introduction  to 

the  History  of 

Sugar  as  a  Commodity 

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BY 


ELLEN  DEBORAH  ELLIS 


Bryn  Mawr,  Pennsylvania,  U.  S.  A.,  August,  1905 


PHILADELPHIA  : 

THE  JOHN  C.  WINSTON  CO. 

1905 


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CONTENTS, 


CHAPTER 
CHAPTER 
CHAPTER 
CHAPTER 
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CHAPTER 
CHAPTER 
CHAPTER 
CHAPTER 
CHAPTER 
CHAPTER 
CHAPTER 
CHAPTER 
CHAPTER 
CHAPTER 


Pagb 

I Generai.  Introduction i 

II Wants,  Commodities,  Margin ai,  Utiuties 8 

III Sugar   Classified i6 

IV Sugar  versus  Honey  as  a  Commodity 21 

V Sugar  in  Asia 32 

VI Sugar  Around  the  Mediterranean  Sea 40 

VII The  Discovery  of  America 46 

VIII The  Demand  for  Sugar  in  Europe 52 

IX Spanish  and  Portuguese  Activity 55 

X The  Engush  Refining  Industry 62 

XI Increasing  Suppi^y  of  Sugar 65 

XII Sugar  a  Luxury  in  Engi^and 72 

XIII. . .  .Engush  Cultivation  of  the  Cane 79 

XIV. . .  .The  English  Sugar  Trade 83 

XV The  Demand  for  English  Sugar 87 

XVI. . .  .The  Supply  of  Sugar  in  England 98 


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CHAPTER  I. 
General  Introduction. 

The  title  chosen  for  this  work— "The  History  of  Sugar  as  a 
Commodity"— suggests  the  two  divisions  into  which  the  investiga- 
tion will  fall,  and  the  subject-matter  of  each.  First,  I  shall  set 
forth  the  characteristics  of  sugar  as  a  commodity— this  will 
involve  a  study  of  the  statics  of  sugar.  A  study  of  its  dynamics 
will  follow,  in  which  I  shall  trace  the  history  of  sugar  as  a  com- 
modity. 

For  these  investigations  I  have  presupposed  that  sugar  is  a 
commodity.  To  gain  an  intelligent  idea  of  the  way  in  which 
sugar  fills  this  role,  it  will  be  necessary  to  know  what  the  role 
itself  involves.  What,  then,  is  a  commodity?  Pantaleoni's  defini- 
tion I  find  the  most  serviceable;  it  not  only  is  the  clearest,  most 
scientific  and  most  detailed  exposition  that  I  have  been  able  to 
find,  but,  besides,  it  suppHes  just  those  suggestions  of  genus  and 
differentiae  so  essential  to  a  complete  understanding  of  the  sub- 
ject. According  to  Pantaleoni's  definition  the  four  "conditions 
of  fact"  that  "constitute  a  thing  a  commodity"  are:  first,  "the 
existence  of  a  concrete  want,  which  implies  the  existence  of  an 
individual  who  feels  it  in  a  certain  measure  at  a  given  moment ;" 
secondly,  "the  existence  of  a  thing;"  thirdly,  "the  opinion  that 
this  thing  has  determinate  structural  and  functional  properties ;" 
and,  fourthly,  "the  presence  or  accessibility  or  availability  of  the 
said  thing  in  a  determinate  quantity  in  relation  to  which  alone 
and  exclusively  the  judgment  is  formulated  that  the  thing  is  a 

commodity."  ^ 

Of  these  four  "essentials,"  the  second  and  fourth— namely, 
"the  existence  of  the  thing"  and  its  "presence  or  availability  or 
accessibility  in  a  determinate  quantity" — are  evidently  indicative 

*  Pantaleoni,  "Pure  Economics,"  1898,  pp.  59,  60. 
I  (I) 


J 


2  SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 

in  largest  measure  of  qualities  which  all  commodities  have  in 
common,  such  for  instance  as  being,  position,  quantity  and  the 
like,  and  mark  off,  therefore,  the  genus  "commodity."  The  first 
and  third,  on  the  other  hand — ^namely,  the  "existence  of  a  concrete 
want,"  and  so  "of  an  individual  who  feels  it  in  a  certain  measure 
at  a  given  moment,"  and  "the  opinion  that  the  thing  (desired) 
has  determinate  structural  and  functional  properties,"  are  just 
as  clearly  indicative  of  qualities  concrete  and  particular  for  each 
commodity  that  may  come  under  consideration,  and  suggest, 
therefore,  the  ways  in  which  differentiae  among  commodities  may 

Before  any  specific  account  of  the  commodity  sugar  can  be 
attempted  it  will  be  necessary,  therefore,  to  analyze  these  first  and 
third  "requisites."  This  will  involve  a  study,  first,  of  the  wants 
of  man,  and  secondly,  of  the  various  classes  of  economic  goods. 
The  proceeding  next  in  order  will  be  to  examine  sugar  as  a  com- 
modity with  regard  to  those  qualities  which  it  either  possesses 
or  is  believed  to  possess.  In  this  part  of  the  work  I  shall  deal 
only  with  those  qualities  which  are  actually  present  in  sugar, 
since  in  general  it  may  be  assumed  that  the  properties  which  are 
believed  to  be  resident  in  things  are,  to  a  great  degree,  at  least, 
in  reality  there.  "Doubtless,"  says  Pantaleoni,  "in  civilized  times 
the  rule  will  be  that  the  thing  which  is  deemed  a  commodity  does 
possess  the  properties  attributed  to  it,  and  that  these  properties 
have  the  virtue  of  appeasing  the  respective  want."  ^ 

Having  examined  the  especial  qualities  of  sugar,  and  knowing, 
in  general,  what  forms  man's  wants  may  assume,  I  shall  relate 
these  two  sets  of  facts  to  each  other,  and  determine  which  of 
man's  wants  sugar  is  qualified  directly  or  indirectly  to  satisfy. 
With  this  as  the  working  material,  the  remaining  or  dynamic  part 
of  the  investigation  will  be  the  tracing  of  the  ways  in  which 
sugar  has  served  to  satisfy  these  wants  through  the  years  of  its 
economic  existence,  which  study  will  be,  in  fact,  the  compiling 
of  the  history  of  sugar  as  a  commodity. 

A  study  of  the  history  of  sugar  as  a  commodity  involves  the 

*  Pantaleoni,  1.  c,  p.  6i. 


i 


v      I 


/ 


<« 


GENERAL  INTRODUCTION.  3 

tracing  of  all  the  stages  in  the  economic  progress  of  this  good. 
The  two  chief  phases  in  which  any  goods  appear  in  the  economic 
process  are  those  of  production  and  consumption,  and  m  logical 
sequence  production  precedes  consumption.    Thus,  sugar  values 
had  clearly,  to  be  produced  before  man  could  make  them  his  own 
by  consuming  them.     In  the  first  part  of  the  economic  history 
of  sugar,  accordingly,  the   chief   emphasis  must  be  laid  on  the 
phenomenon  of  production.    The  development  of  the  process  ot 
utilization  will  be  taken  into  account,  and  its  various  stages 
reviewed.     The  production  of  sugar  values  by  the  cultivation  of 
the  cane,  will  be  considered  in  relation  to  the  refining  of  the  juice 
and  the  trade  in  the  finished  product,  sugar.      The  expandmg 
culture  of  the  sugar  cane,  the  development  of  the  refining  indus- 
try   and  the  growth  of  the  commercial  exchange  in  sugar  will 
in  turn  be  investigated.    When  this  is  done,  the  emphasis  will 
pass  to  the  study  of  the  phenomenon  of  consumption.     The 
especial  subject  in  hand  lends  itself  with  peculiar  aptness  to  this 
form  of  procedure,  since,  until  the  circle  of  sugar  cultivation 
about  the  earth  was  to  all  intents  and  purposes  complete,  and 
until  through  various  vicissitudes  all  the  phenomena  of  the  pro- 
duction of  sugar  values— in  cultivation  and  refining  and  trade- 
had  centered  in  the  hands  of  the  English  nation— until  this  point 
was  reached,  the  more  advanced  phases  of  the  increasing  con- 
sumption of  sugar  did  not  manifest  themselves.    The  transition 
from  the  one  to  the  other,  from  production  to  consumption,  is 
moreover  made  easy  and  natural  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  it  was 
in  England  and  among  the  English  people  that  sugar  first  passed 
through  the  later  stages  in  its  economic  life  from  the  consump- 
tion point  of  view. 

To  trace  the  geographical  spread  of  the  cuhivation  of  the  sugar 
cane  is  to  follow  its  advance  through  many  environments  from 
southern  Asia  to  South  America.^     The  cane  was  taken  from 

» Simultaneously  with  this  westward  spread  of  cane-culture  there  was  a 
corresponding  expansion  to  the  east,  through  China  and  Indo-China  and 
the  Asiatic  Islands.  This  has,  however,  not  been  taken  under  considera- 
tion in  the  present  work,  since  for  this  study  it  has  not  been  deemed 
significant.    The  culture  in  these  eastern  regions,  however,  served  to  render 


.1        *^ 


4  SUGAR  AS  A  COM,MODITY. 

India— its  original  habitat— and  planted  in  the  valley  of  the 
Tigris,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Jondisapur  and  Ahwaz.  It  flour- 
ished there  under  the  Persians  and  under  the  Mohammedans. 
By  these  latter  people  it  was  transplanted  to  the  westward,  appear- 
ing successively  in  Eg>^pt  and  northern  Africa,  in  Syria  and  Pales- 
tine, in  the  Mediterranean  Islands  and  in  Spain. 

The  people  of  the  Spanish  Peninsula  were  at  once  the  last  to 
receive  the  cane  at  the  hands  of  the  Mohammedans,  and  the  first 
to  start  it  on  its  further  migration  across  the  Atlantic  Ocean.    In 
the  early  fifteenth  century  the  islands  nearer  the  Old  World  were 
planted  with  the  sugar  cane.     From  the  Madeira  and  Canary 
Islands  its  culture  spread  southward  to  the  islands  about  the 
equator— St.  Thomas  and  the  rest.     In  the  sixteenth  century  the 
first  plantations  were  started  in  the  New  World,  and  the  center 
moved  from  that  time  constantly  toward  the  west.    In  the  Spanish 
West  Indies  and  in  Mexico  and  Brazil  on  the  mainland,  promising 
harvests  were  reaped.    This  transplanting  to  the  New  World 
was  the  last  great  stage  in  the  westward  migration  of  the  cane. 
Various  political  struggles  were  worked  out  in  those  early  days 
in  the  tropical  regions  of  America,  as  the  European  nations  con- 
tended for  supremacy  there,  and  the  Spanish  predominance  in 
sugar  culture  was  followed    in    turn    by    the   English  and  the 
French.* 

The  first  attempts  to  increase  the  utility  of  sugar  by  the  refining 
industry  were  made  in  the  Tigris  Valley  at  Jondisapur  and 
Ahwaz.  This  art  continued  to  be  practiced  under  the  Sassanides, 
and  later  under  the  Abbassides  for  many  years.  In  the  Middle 
Ages  Venice,  through  her  discovery  of  the  art  of  refining  sugar, 
became  the  center  for  this  industry  and  maintained  her  supremacy 
until  m  the  early  modern  era  Antwerp  rose  to  prominence,  which 

the  circle  of  cane-culture  about  the  earth  practically  complete  in  the  seven- 
teenth century.  (See  above,  p.  3.)  More  recently,  also,  sugar  culture 
has  been  introduced  into  Hawaii  and  other  Pacific  Islands,  but  this  belongs 
to  a  period  beyond  the  scope  of  the  present  work. 

*The  later  transplanting  of  the  cane  to  the  Hawaiian  and  Philippine 
Islands  was  dearly  subsidiary  to  the  first  great  transplanting  to  the  New 
World. 


--*! 


H 


Lv 


GENERAL  INTRODUCTION.  5 

position  she  proudly  held  until  at  her  destruction  at  the  hands 
of  Spain  her  sugar  industry  passed  once  more  to  the  westward— 

this  time  to  England. 

The  essential  relationship  existing  between  the  refining  of  sugar 
and  the  trade  in  that  commodity  is  well  evidenced  by  the  close 
association  in  which  these  two  phases  of  activity  have  at  all  times 
been  found.  Until  sugar  was  refined  it  could  not  figure  in  com- 
merce, for  in  its  raw  state  it  is  unfit  to  be  transported  or  preserved. 
As  Venice  was  the  center  of  the  refining  industry  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  so  the  Venetians  were  the  chief  traders  in  sugar  at  that 
time,  and  as  Venice  was  superseded  in  the  making  of  sugar  by 
the  refiners  of  Antwerp,  so  Dutch  traders  followed  the  Venetians 
as  the  carriers  of  sugar  through  Europe.  While  the  Spanish  and 
Portuguese  held  the  monopoly  of  the  cane  fields  in  America,  the 
vessels  of  these  nations  brought  the  product  of  their  plantations 
to  their  respective  mother  countries.  But  it  was  Dutch  ships 
that  called  at  Lisbon— then  the  center  of  the  colonial  sugar  trade— 
and  carried  the  sugar  to  Antwerp  to  be  refined.  Dutch  ships, 
furthermore,  distributed  the  refined  product  thence  among  the 
various  European  markets.  Finally,  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
the  English  asserted  their  power  over  these  Dutch  traders,  who 
had  then  even  taken  to  themselves  the  transporting  of  sugar  from 
the  English  sugar  isles.  As  the  English  had  already  become 
supreme  in  cultivating  and  refining  sugar,  so  now  they  made  good 
their  supremacy  in  the  sugar  trade.  This  leadership  in  the  worid 
of  sugar  was  maintained  by  England  until  the  rising  industry  of 
France  made  this  latter  country  a  successful  competitor.  The 
final  triumph  of  the  French,  however,  belongs  to  a  period  beyond 
the  scope  of  the  present  paper. 

At  this  point,  with  the  production  of  sugar  values  centered  in 
the  hands  of  the  English  nation,  the  interest  passes  naturally  to 
the  consumption  process.  So  far,  the  consumption  of  sugar  had 
not  passed  through  many  definite  stages,  for  during  much  of  the 
seventeenth  century  it  was  still  essentially  a  luxury.  From  the 
pharmacopoeia  of  the  Persian  and  Arabian  "physicians  in  the 
Tigris  Valley  it  passed  among  the  Mohammedans  to  the  lists  of 
their  highly  prized  articles  of  food.     Among  them  it  remained, 


,'    •\ 


\ 


0t 


J 


O  SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 

however,  distinctly  a  superfluity — a  rare  and  costly  addition  to 
their  ordinary  diet.  In  Spain,  also,  it  held  the  place  of  a  luxury 
to  be  offered  at  feasts  and  elaborate  entertainments ;  and  in  Eng- 
land its  early  history  is  the  same.  It  was,  indeed,  not  until  the 
latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century  that  the  use  of  sugar  became 
really  general.  In  those  years  it  began  to  be  produced  in  sufli- 
cieiit  quantities  to  make  it  available  to  the  mass  of  the  English 
people.  It  was  then  that  the  second  great  step  in  the  history  of 
its  consumption  was  taken,  when  sugar  left  the  ranks  of  the  super- 
fluities accessible  to  only  the  rich,  and  entered  the  lists  of  those 
articles  which  those  in  more  moderate  circumstances  might  enjoy, 
/not  only  on  state  occasions,  but  as  regular  accompaniments  of  their 
V  claily  food. 

It  is  to  this  phase  of  the  history  of  sugar  that  the  last  part  of 
this  paper  will  be  devoted.  The  various  stages  of  the  populariza- 
tion of  sugar  after  1650  will  then  be  followed  in  detail,  and  the 
successive  conditions  of  supply  and  demand  will  be  reviewed. 
-^Through  it  all  will  be  traced  the  steady  fall  in  the  price  of  sugar, 
bringing  it  constantly  within  reach  of  poorer  classes  of  society, 
and  making  possible,  therefore,  the  persistent  increase  in  the  con- 
sumption of  this  commodity. 

Beyond  this  period  in  the  history  of  sugar  I  shall  not  be  able 
to  pursue  this  present  study.  I  shall  be  obliged  to  leave  sugar  at 
that  point  when  it  can  first  really  be  classed  as  a  necessity  of  the 
English  people — as  conceived  from  the  point  of  view  of  happiness 
rather  than  of  mere  survival.  My  plan  is,  however,  to  carry  the 
investigation  further  at  some  future  time. 

In  such  a  continuation  of  my  work  I  shall  examine  the  part  that 
sugar  played  in  the  political  and  economical  history  of  the  England 
of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  and,  indeed,  during 
subsequent  centuries  as  well.  Its  bearing  upon  the  mercantile 
and  navigation  system  of  England  and  upon  her  colonial  policy 
will  be  subjected  to  careful  examination. 

A  later  investigation,  still,  I  hope  to  devote  to  the  rise  and 
progress  of  the  beet-sugar  industry.  Its  spread  through  Europe 
from  France,  where  it  has  had  a  "continuous  existence  since  the 


4.t 


v*! 


k        I, 


't^        I..         # 


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I 


GENERAL  INTRODUCTION.  7 

days  of  Napoleon," »  to  Germany,  Austria,  Russia  and  Belgium, 
will  be  traced,  and  studied  as  the  expansion  of  cane  cult.vation 
has  been  studied  here.  Its  final  migration  to  the  United  States 
will  also  claim  consideration.  Throughout  this  tracmg  of  the 
history  of  the  sugar  beet  and  its  product,  its  relationship  with 
cane  sugar  will  be  kept  constantly  in  mind,  and  an  attempt  will 
be  made  to  ascertain  where  the  economic  advantages  and  dis- 
advantages lie.  The  modern  capitalization  of  the  West  Indian 
cane  fields  will  be  the  subject  of  the  final  section  of  the  work,  and 
the  effect  which  this  process  is  having  upon  the  sugar  market  of 
to-day. 

•C.  S.  Griffin,  "The  Sugar  Industry  in  Europe,"  Quarterly  Journal  of 
Economics,  Vol.  XVII,  p.  S- 


'    .  CHAPTER  11. 

Wants,  Commodities,  Marginal  Utilities. 

The  wants  of  man  are  obviously  as  many  and  as  complex  as 
are  the  activities  of  human  life  to  which  they  give  rise.  For  long 
ages  philosophers  and  thinkers  have  attempted  to  classify  these 
"unsatisfied  cravings"  of  man,  in  order  in  some  way  to  bring 
system  out  of  the  apparent  chaos  of  the  varied  interests  and  rela- 
tionships of  humanity.  As  yet,  however,  no  complete  and  satis- 
factory classification  has  been  arrived  at,  so  strongly  have  the 
various  investigators  been  influenced  by  their  own  personal  pro- 
clivities, and  so  blind  have  they  been,  in  consequence,  to  the  other 
desires  that  have  still  been  leading  men  on  to  actions  worthy  or 
unworthy.  Awaiting  such  a  complete  classification  the  only 
alternative  for  one  who  must  deal  with  human  wants  in  their 
bearing  upon  a  particular  problem — ^as  upon  the  one  now  in  hand, 
the  consumption  of  the  commodity  sugar — is  to  investigate  the 
partial  classifications  that  have  been  made  in  the  hope  that  they 
may  account  for  the  particular  wants  which  the  good  under  con- 
sideration has  been  fitted  to  supply. 

There  are  apparently  three  great  classes  of  these  wants,  and 
it  is  worthy  of  note  that  they  are  the  categories  of  desire  which 
writers  on  philosophy  and  psycholc^y  as  well  as  on  economics 
have  selected  as  typical  of  all  of  the  wants  of  men,  although  in 
reality  this  classification  leaves  some  of  the  most  powerful  stimuli 
to  human  activity  unaccounted  for.  For  the  present  purpose, 
however,  it  is  sufficient,  and  it  will  be  suggestive  for  the  specific 
work  on  sugar  to  mention  those  who  have  dealt  most  clearly  and 
definitely  with  the  subject. 

According  to  Pantaleoni,  man  in  his  environment  experiences 
wants  of  two  fundamental  kinds,  which  Pantaleoni  has  charac- 
terized as  "primary"  and  "secondary,"  and  which  have  relation- 
ship to  the  common  and  special  sensations  respectively.    Among 

(8) 


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WANTS,   COMMODITIES,    MARGINAL   UTILITIES.  9 

the  common  sensations  are  mentioned  weight,  resistance  and 
temperature,  and,  as  bearing  directly  upon  the  present  inquiry, 
hunger  and  thirst  and  the  like.  The  special  sensations  are  those 
received  through  the  medium  of  the  so-called  five  special  senses.^ 
In  Senior's  "Political  Economy"  the  classification  of  wants  is 
carried  one  degree  further,  and  the  "love  of  distinction"  is  added 
to  the  other  categories  of  desire.  He  says,  in  part:  "The  mere 
necessaries  of  life  are  few  and  simple.  .  .  .  But  no  man  is  satis- 
fied with  so  limited  a  range  of  enjoyment.  His  first  object  is  to 
vary  his  food  ....  the  next  desire  is  variety  of  dress  ....  and 
last  comes  the  desire  to  build,  to  ornament,  to  furnish — tastes 
which  are  absolutely  insatiable  where  they  exist  and  seem  to 
increase  with  every  improvement  in  civilization.  .  .  .  But  strong 
as  is  the  desire  for  variety  it  is  weak  compared  with  the  desire 
for  distinction,  a  feeling  which  ....  may  be  pronounced  to 
be  the  most  powerful  of  human  passions.  The  most  obvious 
source  of  distinction  is  the  possession  of  superior  wealth."  * 
Professor  David  Irons,  also,  in  his  "Psychology  of  Ethics," 
a  book  written  from  a  very  different  point  of  view,  has  still  rec- 
ognized in  general  these  classes  of  wants.  His  discussion  is 
valuable  here,  also,  because  he  has  in  great  measure  related  them 
to  the  desiring  subject.  In  discussing  the  "Primitive  Principles 
of  Activity,"  he  declares: 

"Every  individual  strives  to  preserve  his  existence  and  also  to  express  it 
or  make  it  effective  in  some  way.  In  other  words,  everyone  has  an  impulse 
toward  self-preservation  and  a  tendency  to  self-assertion.  .  .  .  Self- 
assertion  in  any  strict  sense  of  the  term  is  a  distinctly  human  impulse,  since 
it  presupposes  a  consciousness  of  self  as  opposed  to  non-self.  It  is 
clear  that  the  impulse  toward  self-manifestation  is  a  tendency  which  can 
take  many  different  directions.  It  appears  as  the  ambition  to  accomplish 
something  which  will  extort  permanent  social  recognition.  It  is  present 
also  in  the  desire  for  domination  over  others — the  desire  for  power  in 
the  narrow  sense.  In  these  cases  it  substitutes  a  struggle  for  pre-eminence 
in  place  of  the  struggle  for  mere  existence.  In  another  aspect  it  is  the 
property  instinct — the  tendency  to  establish  control  over  things  and  to 
bring  them  under  the  dominion  of  the  self.' 


»>  3 


*  Pantaleoni,  1.  c,  p.  48. 

'Senior,  "Political  Economy,"  1872,  p.  11. 

'  D.  Irons,  "Psychology  of  Ethics,"  1905,  pp.  132  sq. 


Kft  *1 


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10 


SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


,l!r^r  1  f  '  "  *'"  "^  '^"  *''^*  *^y  ^^f«^  i"  a"  to  three 

orT«7        'k**^  T*''  *'"'''  '^'■"^  '^^"  ^«=«g"i-^d  in  greater 

riv  n    h  "^T^  ''  '"  °'  '"'  *•■«=  *"*^«'  '"^^"gh  they  have 
given  then,  d.iferent  names  and  different  degrees  of  promLnce 

no^,V?r'  .'"^'**'^^°"  ^f  ^i*  ^"bJect  carried  on  in  the  Eco- 
Professor  L.  M.  Keasbey,  has  attempted  to  codify  these  wants 

I^med  T''*  '"'  ''""•'^'  '''''"''  ''"•^  *e  results  obtained  have 
seemed  to  give  expression  to  the  most  satisfactory  understandings 
yet  reached  of  the  relationship  which  these  varioTdepartment! 

whor^TH  ;■  *'r'  "'"^  ^"^  ^'^  *^  -™-  proLs  as  a 
Te^lrchln  t,f  ""^r  ^^  developed  in  the  course  of  this 
Z!  '^^f°"''*^=  fi--«t.  the  organic  wants,  or  the  desire  for 

those  goods  that  make  for  the  preservation  of  life;  secondly  the 
sensory  wants,  or  the  desire  for  those  goods  that  cZrbute  to 
the  pleasure  and  the  adormnents  and  the  fullness  of    i"e    a„d 

tt;  L  *^  ^"^  7T'  °'  *^  "'^''^  ^-  notoriety  an  'di'stnl: 
.on  among  one's  fellow-men,  and  so  for  those  goods  that  wiH 
msure  th.s  social  recognition.     It  is  to  such  goodsX  ProW 

aff"^  'the"ne'"f  "*'^''.'^""  "'  '""^  P^"*"^'  "'""^  *hat  t^; 
subject/  ^^      recently  published  on  the 

l.rTlT'  ^''  ""^'^  ^'^^  ^^^^  ^"^  ^^^^^"^ss  emphasized  the 
tact  that  the  very  concept  of  "want"  implies  the  existenrp  nr 

Z'omictr:  T'  '"^  :''""'  '^  '>"^'«^''  *«  --"e  th 
economic  pam,  or  the  sense  of  maladjustment  or  insufficiency 

which  IS  the  precursor  of  the  want.  If  this  be  true  anv  .H  7 
discussion  of  economic  wants  must  include  also  ;f  neSS  a 
consideration  of  those  economic  goods  with  which  theTa  Iso 
vitally  connected.  "A  want  implies,"  says  Pantaleon^  ^' 
the  concurrence  of  at  least  two  conditions;  first,  some  painmust' 
exist  «  our  consciousness secondly,  there  must   be  the 

ll!:.,^'f  v"^"^^-    T/""'8'   ^*'"'"     Reprinted    from    the   Quarterly 
Journal  of  Economics,  Volume  XVII,  May,  1903.  Wuarterly 


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WANTS,   COMMODITIES,    MARGINAI,  UTILITIES. 


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knowledge  of  some  means  or  instrument  the  use  of  which  would 
diminish  or  suppress  the  pain  in  question."  ^  With  this  as  the 
conception,  therefore,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  want  in  its  full 
significance  acts  in  reality  as  the  bridge  between  the  economic 
pain  and  the  commodity,  and,  stretching  out  as  it  does  and  cover- 
ing both  of  these  phenomena,  leads  the  way  by  almost  imper- 
ceptible steps  from  the  realm  of  economic  demand  into  that  of 
economic  supply. 

In  the  great  supply  of  economic  goods,  real  or  perspective,  at 
the  disposal  of  man,  there  are  possibilities  of  classification  which 
will  furnish  groups  corresponding  in  general  to  the  categories 
of  wants  as  they  have  been  formulated  above.  For  the  satisfac- 
tion of  organic  wants,  there  are  those  goods  which  are  pre-emi- 
nently the  necessaries  of  life — ^those  commodities,  in  other  words, 
which  are  calculated  to  preserve  the  human  organism  against  suf- 
fering or  degeneration,  but  which  will  not  in  general  serve  to 
allow  any  improvement  or  extension  of  its  modus  vivendi.  In 
economic  theory,  especially  of  the  English  school,  these  goods  have 
played  a  large  role  under  the  name  of  "Subsistence  Minimum." 

Those  goods,  secondly,  which  answer  the  demands  of  the 
sensory  desires  are  in  common  parlance  the  superfluities  and  com- 
forts of  life,  or,  to  quote  Anderson,  the  author  of  the  "Treatise 
on  Commerce,"  "whatever  things  may  be  said  to  be  useful  and 
excellent,  either  in  nature  or  in  art;  whether  for  sensual  or  for 
intellectual  gratifications;  for  the  ease,  convenience,  or  elegance 
of  life." « 

The  social  wants,  finally,  find  their  gratification  in  the  posses- 
sion of  some  source  of  superiority  over  the  rest  of  society.  This 
superiority  can,  clearly,  result  only  from  the  possession  of  some 
commodity  or  good  which  all  cannot  acquire  in  the  same  large 
quantities,  and  depends,  therefore,  in  the  last  analysis  upon  limi- 
tation of  supply.  Such  limitation  may  reside  in  a  man's  nature 
itself,  in  the  more  or  less  exclusive  possession  of  some  quality  or 
force  which  enables  him  above  his  fellow-men  to  profit  from 

"  Pantaleoni,  I.  c,  p.  40. 

•  Anderson,  "Treatise  on  Commerce,"  1787,  I,  Pref.,  p.  VII. 


.^      # 


12 


SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


his  environment;  or  it  may  reside  in  the  outer  world  as  actual 
physical  scarcity  of  some  commodity,  some  thing,  such  as  the 
domesticated  herd,  or  cultivated  land  in  a  restricted  area,  which, 
to  quote  Professor  Keasbey  again,  "constituted  a  monopoly 
good  from  the  start."  Senior,  also,  realized  the  essential  impor- 
tance of  this  fact  when  in  his  discussion  of  value  he  declared  that 
the  chief  source  of  the  influence  of  limitation  in  supply  on  value 
was  to  be  found  in  "two  of  the  most  powerful  principles  of  human 
nature,  the  love  of  variety  and  the  love  of  distinction."  ^ 

The  laws  of  marginal  utility  are  too  much  a  part  of  the  present 
economic  code  to  need  repetition  here,  in  the  consideration  of  the 
psychological  effect  upon  man  of  the  consumption  of  these  goods 
in  satisfying  his  various  wants.  It  will,  however,  be  helpful  to 
try  to  understand  the  causes  of  this  decline  in  utility  which  has 
thus  been  taken  as  the  basis  of  all  economic  reasoning.  These 
causes  must  rest  in  one  of  three  sets  of  conditions.  They  must 
lie  either  in  the  character  of  the  goods  consumed,  i.  e.,  in  "the 
mechanical  and  chemical  laws  of  those  bodies  which  in  economics 
are  regarded  as  commodities ;"  ®  or  in  the  nature  of  the  consumer, 
i.  e,,  in  "the  biological,  psychological  and  sociological  laws  that 
govern  man  and  other  organic  beings ;" "  or  else,  as  is  in  reality, 
perhaps,  most  often  the  case,  in  a  combination  of  these  two  ele- 
ments, i.  e,,  in  the  joint  action  of  the  specific  character  of  the  good, 
and  the  nature  of  the  man,  as  these  two  are  brought  together  in 
the  process  of  consumption. 

The  essential  idea  which  lay  behind  the  adoption  of  the  term 
"organic"  as  descriptive  of  those  wants  which  look  to  the  pres- 
ervation of  life  will  be  of  great  service  here  in  arriving  at  an 
understanding  of  the  decline  in  the  utility  of  the  necessaries  of  life 
during  the  process  of  their  consumption.  Organic  wants  are  in 
reality  simply  the  demand  of  the  human  organism  that  it  may 
be  supplied  with  those  things  which  are  absolutely  requisite  for 
its  survival  in  a  state  of  equilibration  with  its  physical  environ - 

'Semor,  1.  c,  p.  ii. 
'  Pantaleoni,  1.  c,  p.  3. 
•Pantaleoni,  1.  c,  p.  3. 


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WANTS,   COMMODITIES,   MARGINAL  UTILITIES. 


13 


ment  Moreover,  this  point  of  absolute  equilibration  may  actually 
be  attained,  at  which  moment  the  organism  will  be  in  a  condition 
of  entire  satisfaction,  or  of  satiety. 

The  phenomena  that  arise  in  the  course  of  the  satisfaction  of 
the  sensory  wants  are  clearly  different.  The  possibilities  of  sensory 
enjoyments  are  so  manifold  and  so  multiform  that  even  while 
man  is  engaged  in  the  consumption  of  one  good  multitudes  of 
other  wants  suggest  themselves  to  him,  and  to  enjoy  even  m  small 
measure  some  gratification  of  them  all  he  finds  it  necessary  con- 
stantly to  break  off  the  consuming  of  one  commodity  and  to  begin 
that  of  another.     A  consideration  of  the  complexity  and  fineness 
of  perception  in  the  five  special  senses  suggests  at  once  the  almost 
limitless  variation  of  which  this  process  of  sensory  consumption 
is  capable,  a  variation  so  great  in  fact  that  the  term  variety  has 
been  selected  as  that  best  fitted  to  express  the  distinguishmg 
feature  of  such  satisfaction.    Adam  Smith  has  well  brought  out 
the  difference  between  these  two  forms  of  gratification,  the  organic 
and  the  sensory,  when  he  says,    "The  desire  of  food  is  limited 
in  every  man  by  the  narrow  capacity  of  the  human  stomach ;  but 
the  desire  of  the  conveniences  and  ornaments  of  building,  dress, 
equipage  and  household  furniture  seems  to  have  no  limit  or  cer- 
tain boundary."  ^^ 

In  the  consumption  of  the  goods  which  furnish  satisfaction  for 
the  social  wants,  the  demand  for  recognition  and  prestige,  yet 
another  phenomenon  appears.  In  this  case  the  marginal  utility 
does  not  seem  to  decline,  nor  does  variety  appear  as  a  feature 
of  the  process ;  on  the  contrary,  men  store  up  great  hoards  of 
articles  of  like  nature  and  quality  and  in  great  quantities  without 
apparently  any  diminution  in  utility.  "The  larger  the  patriarch's 
herd  or  the  more  extensive  the  landlord's  estate,  the  greater  the 
prestige  of  proprietorship  and  the  more  powerful  his  position  in 
the  world."  '^  It  is  here  that  the  "effective  desire  of  accumula- 
tion" finds  its  most  complete  expression,  and  seems  at  first  sight 

"  Adam  Smith,  "Wealth  of  Nations,"  edited  by  Thorold  Rogers,  1869. 
I,  p.  174- 
"  L.  M.  Keasbey,  1.  c,  p.  17. 


4' 


14 


SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


C     .« 


WANTS,   COMMODITIES,    MARGINAL   UTILITIES. 


15 


u 


to  violate  all  the  cherished  formulae  of  the  economist.  The  reason 
for  this  apparent  contradiction,  however,  is  to  be  sought  and 
found  in  the  exact  nature  of  the  consumption  process.  The  most 
significant  fact  in  this  connection  is  that  the  social  satisfaction 
that  man  experiences  from  goods  bears  very  little  relation  to  the 
physical  qualities  of  the  good  or  goods  accumulated,  but  depends 
rather  on  their  mere  possession  or  proprietorship.  It  will  be  seen, 
therefore,  that  such  goods  appeal  not  to  man's  distinctly  limited 
organic  and  physical  nature,  nor  to  his  five  special  senses,  but 
rather  to  his  whole  being  in  its  fullest  and  widest  expansion — 
to  borrow  Professor  Irons's  idea — to  his  conception  of  self.  The 
utility  of  such  goods  must,  evidently,  decline  imperceptibly  if  at 
all ;  and  this  will  be  true,  as  already  suggested,  from  both  sub- 
jective and  objective  causes.  Subjectively  it  will  be  true  because 
of  the  infinitely  expansive  keyboard  upon  which  the  utilities  play — 
that  of  the  idea  of  self;  and  objectively,  because  of  the  many 
forms  that  social  satisfaction  may  assume.  The  signs  of  dis- 
tinction that  may  be  accorded  to  a  man  in  a  complex  social  system 
are  infinitely  varied  and  variable,  appearing  as  they  do  in  all  the 
countless  manifestations  of  regard  and  adulation  that  can  be 

developed  where  "there  are  dependents,  associates  or 

neighbors  to  be  impressed  by  the  extent  of  (a  man's)  posses- 
sions," ^^  and  where,  therefore,  "to  raise  his  social  position,  to 
add  to  his  dignity,  or  augment  in  any  way  his  prestige,"  ^^  becomes 
his  constant  aim. 

These  wants  and  satisfactions  as  here  analyzed  are  universal  in 
society — ^all  men  strive  alike  for  preservation,  pleasure  and 
prestige;  but  all  men  are  not  under  all  circumstances  actuated- 
simultaneously  and  with  equal  force  by  all  of  these  stimuli.  From 
the  economic  point  of  view,  and  apart  from  physical  personality, 
society  is  divided  into  the  two  great  classes  of  consumers  and 
producers,  and  each  one  of  its  members  appears  at  different  times 
and  under  different  circumstances  as  predominantly  the  one  or 
the  other,  his  especial  role  being  determined  by  the  character  of 

"Ii.  M.  Keasbey,  1.  c,  p.  8. 

*  L.  M.  Keasbey,  1.  c,  p.  8.. 


V  nt 


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the  want  that  is  uppermost  for  the  moment,  or,  in  other  words, 
according  to  whether  he  is  influenced  in  greatest  measure  by  the 
desire  for  sensory  enjoyment  or  pleasure,  or  by  the  impulse  to 
accumulate  some  scarcity  good  for  the  purpose  of  procuring  power 
or  prestige. 

In  his  role  as  consumer  man  has  chiefly  to  do  with  the  sensory 
gratifications — the  entire  consumption  process  as  it  appears  in 
modern  economic  conditions  is  practically  an  obtaining  ready-made 
of  the  objects  of  sensory  desire.  Under  simpler  conditions  of 
life  man  produced  in  great  part  that  which  he  himself  consumed, 
and  was,  it  is  true,  in  such  cases,  almost  at  the  same  moment  of 
time,  and  certainly  with  regard  to  the  same  commodity,  both  pro- 
ducer and  consumer.  But  under  present  circumstances  all  that  is 
changed,  and  while  most  men  must  in  the  long  run  produce  as  well 
as  consume,  still  with  reference  to  any  single  good  those  processes 
are  very  widely  separated  from  each  other,  so  widely  separated, 
in  fact,  that  Professor  Lamprecht  has  adopted  their  growing 
divergence  as  the  chief  characteristic  of  the  developing  com- 
plexity of  economic  life,  and  as  the  gauge  by  which  he  measures 
the  degree  of  civilization  which  a  people  may  have  reached.^*  In 
his  role  as  producer,  on  the  other  hand,  man  seems  to  be  actuated 
by  the  desire  to  accumulate  and  store  up  "superior  wealth"  rather 
than  by  the  wish  to  satisfy  more  immediate  demands.  It  is  true 
that  up  to  a  certain  point  the  aim  in  production  is  to  procure  the 
means  of  acquiring  the  objects  of  organic  or  sensory  desire ;  but 
the  dominating  motive  that  prevails  in  the  economic  world,  and 
lies  at  the  base  of  the  modern  competitive  regime,  as  well  as  at 
the  root  of  the  idea  of  capital  itself,  seems  rather  social  than  purely 
individual,  and  consists,  apparently,  in  the  desire  to  acquire 
enough  of  the  limited  wealth  of  the  world  to  assure  to  the  aspirant 
the  prestige  that  such  possession  brings. 

"Prof.  Karl  Lamprecht,  "Zur  jiingsten  deutschen  Vergangenheit,"  II 
Band,  Erste  Halfte,  1903. 


1 '. 


/ 


SUGAR  CI.ASSIFIED. 


I 


I 


I 


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I 


CHAPTER  III. 
Sugar  Classified. 

Economic  demand,  as  embodied  in  these  wants  here  analyzed, 
is  the  same  or  practically  the  same  among  all  mankind— whether 
because  of  original  likeness  in  man's  nature,  or  on  account  of 
development  along  similar  lines  through  ages  conditioned  by  like 
circumstances.  The  forms  that  it  assumes,  are,  indeed,  so  universal 
that  they  may  be  regarded  as  general  phenomena,  existing  actually 
or  potentially  wherever   economic  man  is  to  be  found.     Along 
the  line  of  demand,  therefore,  but  little  remains  to  be  done  after 
the  general  classification  has  been  made,  the  various  categories 
of  wants  becoming,  so  to  speak,  the  stock  in  trade  for  the  con- 
sideration  of  any  specific  economic  problem.    Economic  supply, 
on  the  contrary,  as  embodied  in  commodities  for  the  satisfaction 
of  these  wants,  is  always  particular  and  concrete,  and  assumes 
as  many  different  forms  as  there  are  goods  in  the  world,  each 
presenting,  naturally,  its  own  peculiar  characteristics  and  qualities, 
and  therefore  its  own  attendant  and  resulting  phenomena  of  pro^ 
duction  and  consumption  and  the  like.     It  is  here,  obviously,  that 
much  detailed  work  in  economics  remains  to  be  done,  inasmuch 
as  an  intensive  study  of  the  various  economic  goods,  and  of  their 
histories  as  such,  must    reveal    in    graphic    form  most  of  the 
phenomena  of  the  dynamics  of  economics,  and  so  aid  materially  in 
working  out  many  of  the  problems  of  theory. 

In  pursuance  of  this  plan,  the  object  of  my  work  is  to  perform  - 
this  task  with  regard  to  sugar  in  general,  the  present  research, 
as  already  analyzed,  being  devoted  to  cane  sugar  in  particular,' 
in  the  earlier  phases  of  its  production  and  consumption.  I  shall,' 
therefore,  in  accord  with  the  method  prescribed  in  a  previous 
chapter,  proceed  at  once  to  classify  it  as  an  economic  good,  with 
respect  to  its  inherent  qualities  and  to  the  wants  which  it  is' fitted 
to  gratify,  as  well  as  to  its  effects  upon  the  human  organism. 

(i6) 


/ 


17 


Sugar  is  by  its  nature  essentially  a  superfluity,  a  good  which 
satisfies  pre-eminently  a  sensory  desire.     Man's  sensory  desire  for' 
sweetness  is  one  of  the  fundamental  sensory  wants,  since  the  sweet 
taste  is  one  of  the  four  "true  tastes,"  the  other  three  in  the  list 
being  salt,  acid  and  bitter.     It  is  therefore  evident  that  the  sweet- 
ness of  sugar  is  in  a  very  peculiar   way  related  to  the  essential 
construction  of  the  sensory  system  in  man,  and  so  to  his  sensory 
wants.     And  the  history  of  sugar  but  serves  to  bear  out  the  fact 
that  it  has  been  for  its  sweetness  that  this  commodity  has  always 
been  consumed.    Sugar,  then,  following  the  classification  of  goods ' 
as  outhned  above,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  wants  to  which 
they  especially  respond,  is  a  superfluity. 

Within  this  broad  classification  of  sugar  as  a  superfluity  there 
are  various    sub-classifications   which    can   be   made,  and  which 
account  also  in  large  measure  for  the  great  desirableness  of  sugar 
as  a  food,  and  for  its  enormous  consumption  under  favoring  cir- 
cumstances.    Sugar  as  such  is  never  consumed  alone.    It  always 
plays  the  part  of  a  flavor  or  '^condiment."     It  is  most  probable 
that  if  sugar  were  consumed  alone  much  less  of  it  would  in  the 
long  run  be  used,  since  its  excessive  sweetness  would  cause  its 
utility  to  decline  rapidly  to  the  satiation  point.    In  the  process  of 
cooking,  however,  under  the  influence  of  heat,  vegetable  acids 
and  so  forth,  cane  sugar  is  inverted  into  products  which  are  much 
less  sweet.     Through  this  loss  in  sweetness  the  dedine  in  utility 
is  much  slower,  compared  with  the  physical  quantity  of  the  ^ood 
consumed,  than  it  otherwise  would  be. 

Within,  again,  this  general  classification  of  sugar  as  a  com- 
plementary good  there  are  smaller  sub-groupings  that  can  be 
made  in  order  to  signify  the  especial  kinds  of  goods  to  which  it 
IS  complementary.  Beyond  the  very  extended  use  of  sugar  in  all 
sorts  of  cooking— in  confectionery,  pastry,  canning  and  the  like- 
its  use  IS  indissolubly  connected  with  the  consumption  of  that 
very  large  class  of  foods,  if  such  they  may  be  called,  known  as 
stimulants.  It  seems,  indeed,  almost  phenomenal  that  sugar 
should  be  so  mtimately  associated  with  so  many  stimulants,  there 
being  hardly  one  of  them  for  which  it  is  not  necessary,  either  in 
the  actual  production  of  the  stimulant  itself,  or  as  an  indispensa- 


ljlllll 


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SUCAR  AS  A  COMM.ODITY. 


ble  accompaniment  of  its  consumption.  In  reviewing  the  specific 
cases  in  which  the  consumption  of  sugar  is  linked  with  that  of 
Stimulants,  the  first  place  must,  beyond  all  doubt,  be  given  to  tea 
and  coffee  and  chocolate.  Many  writers  have  even  gone  so  far 
as  to  ignore  all  the  subsidiary  causes  which  led  to  the  very  popular 
tise  of  sugar  in  the  latter  seventeenth,  and  the  eighteenth  century, 
and  to  attribute  it  entirely  to  the  introduction  into  western  Europe 
at  that  time  of  these  three  beverages. 

Next  to  coffee  and  tea  and  chocolate  must  come  those  stimulants 
which  are  actually  intoxicating.  *ln  addition  to  the  sugar  con- 
sumed at  our  tables,"  says  Phillips,  "and  in  confectionery  and 
pastry,  it  forms  the  basis  of  all  our  made  wines,  is  often  used  as  a 
composition  in  malt  liquors,  and  the  distillers  draw  large  quanti- 
ties of  spirits  from  it."  *  **A11  sugars,"  states  the  article  in  the 
Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  "are  liable  to  fermentation;  a  special 
character  of  the  three  principal  vegetable  sugars  is  that  when 
brought  into  contact  as  solutions  with  yeast  under  suitable  con- 
ditions, they  suffer  vinous  fennentation,  i.  e.,  break  up  substan- 
tially into  carbonic  acid  and  alcohol."  The  fact,  also,  that  rum 
is  a  by-product  of  sugar  in  its  manufacture  is  illuminating  in  this 
connection;  for  the  demand  for  this  stimulant,  and  the  prices  it 
could  command,  must  always  have  had  an  important  influence 
upon  the  production  of  sugar.  What  this  influence  must  have 
I  been  is  suggested  in  the  statement  made  at  about  the  middle  of 
the  eighteenth  centur}%  that  rum  defrayed  the  "ordinary  expense 
of  plantation."  ^ 

The  demand  for  stimulants  and  the  effect  of  their  consumption 
on  man  are  phenomena  peculiar  in  themselves.  Mr.  Bruce,  in  his 
"Economic  History  of  Virginia,"  has  struck  the  keynote  of  this 
peculiarity  in  speaking  of  that  great  narcotic-stimulant,  tobacco. 
"For  no  other  Virginia  product,"  he  says,  "was  there  opportunity 
for  a  sale  that  would  enlarge  as  the  amount  exported  increased." 
These  words  suggest  the  cardinal  truth  about  all  stimulants,  the 

*  Phillips,  "History  of  Cultivated  Vegetables,"  1822,  II,  p.  246. 

"Dr.  Wm.  Douglass,  "Summary— Historical  and  Political— of  the  First 
Planting  of  our  American  Settlements/*  175 1  and  1755,  I,  p.  117. 


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SUGAR  CLASSIFIED. 


19 


fact,  namely,  that  their  utility  rises  with  the  consumption  of  suc- 
cessive increments  of  supply.  This  increase  in  marginal  utility 
is  apparently  contrary  to  all  economic  law.  Its  secret,  however, 
is  most  probably  to  be  found  in  the  well-known  pathological  effect 
which  these  goods  have  upon  the  physical  nature  of  man,  and 
which  remove  the  consumer,  therefore,  out  of  the  realm  of  ordi- 
nary economic  standards.  Pantaleoni  has,  in  fact,  summarily  cast 
aside  all  questions  in  connection  with  such  goods,  and  confines 
his  investigation  to  the  more  normal  types  of  desire  and  satisfac- 
tion.   He  says : 

"The  identification  of  the  hedonic  principle  with  the  desire  of  self- 
preservation  involves  our  not  considering  as  pleasures  and  pains  qua  the 
hedonic  principle  any  sensation  of  either  kind  experienced  by  the  deformed 
organs  or  vitiated  functions  of  individuals  who  are  destined  to  be  eliminated 
by  natural  selection;  and,  on  the  contrary,  our  considering  as  pleasures 
those  sensations  that  sustain,  and  as  pains  those  that  impair  the  organism. 
Judgments  at  variance  with  this  standard  concerning  things  that  are 
causes  of  pleasant  or  painful  sensations  are  classed  as  anti-economic,  and 
are  not  subjects  of  our  study,  save  in  so  far  as  they  are  causes  of  deviation 
in  the  working  of  economic  laws."* 

From  the  subjective  point  of  view  such  desires  as  those  which 
demand  the  stinmlants  for  their  satisfaction  may,  as  Pantaleoni 
claims,  be  classed  as  uneconomic,  but  the  goods  which  are  thus 
demanded  and  consumed  do  not  thereby  lose  their  character  as 
economic  goods,  which  persists  so  long  as  the  specific  good  remains 
scarce  in  comparison  to  the  demand  for  it,  even  if  this  demand,  as 
Pantaleoni  suggests,  is  not  in  itself,  according  to  all  the  canons, 
strictly  economic. 

Objectively  and  absolutely,  therefore,  sugar  has  thus  been 
classed,  first,  as  a  superfluity,  and  then  successively  as  complemen- 
tary good  and  stimulant.  Within  the  economic  world,  however, 
man  rates  his  marginal  utilities,  and  the  goods  in  which  these 
utilities  inhere,  according  to  judgments  much  more  relative  and 
subjective.  In  his  economic  rating  man  can  and  does  adjudge 
many  things  which  pre-eminently  gratify  sensory  wants  as  necessi- 
ties, if  not  of  life,  at  least  of  happiness.  Among  such  goods  sugar 

•  Pantaleoni,  1.  c,  p.  19. 


II 


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SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


'1 


occupies  a  prominent  place.  It  is,  in  fact,  the  principal  object  of 
this  paper  to  follow  the  process  whereby  sugar  has  thus  come  to 
be  considered  by  man  as  necessary  to  his  daily  well-being,  instead 
of,  as  at  first,  as  a  superfluous  luxury  reserved  for  high  days  and 
holidays. 

In  the  earlier  stages  of  its  consumption,  when  the  quantity  of 
sugar  was  limited,  it  was  rated  subjectively  by  the  consumer,  as 
it  has  here  been  rated  objectively,  as  a  superfluity.  Gradually, 
however,  with  its  growing  cheapness  and  the  increasing  habit  of 
its  use,  the  economic  relative  judgment  has  diverged  more  and 
more  widely  from  the  more  absolute  and  physical,  until  at  present 
sugar  is  regarded  by  all  civilized  men,  at  least,  as  a  sine  qua  non 
of  happiness. 

In  the  course  of  this  investigation  it  will,  it  is  believed,  be  made 
clear  how  the  qualities  of  sugar  as  superfluity,  complementary 
good,  and  stimulant,  have  constantly  conditioned  its  economic 
existence.  In  this  way  much  of  the  history  of  sugar  will  be 
explained,  especially  from  the  side  of  demand,  which  is  so  immedi- 
ately dependant  upon  the  character  of  the  want  which  the  good 
is  qualified  to  gratify.  The  marvelous  growth  in  the  consumption 
of  sugar  has  been  wonderingly  commented  upon  by  all  whu  have 
written  upon  this  commodity,  but  without  any  very  intensive  study 
as  to  what  the  ultimate  causes  of  this  expanding  consumption 
might  have  been.  With  the  desire  for  sugar  thus  analyzed,  as 
well  as  the  character  of  the  satisfaction  which  it  affords  to  man, 
the  demand  for  sugar  is  in  great  measure  explained,  and  the  reason 
why  its  consumption  should  have  reached  such  enormous  propor- 
tions is  made  apparent.  Subsidiary  influences,  also,  will  reveal 
themselves  as  the  various  circumstances  in  the  economic  history 
of  sugar  are  taken  under  consideration. 


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CHAPTER  IV. 

Sugar  Versus  Honey  as  a  Commodity. 

With  the  static  part  of  this  study  completed— that  is,  with  the 
definition  and  classification  of  sugar  as  a  commodity  accomplished, 
I  shall  pause  a  moment  before  proceedng  to  the  dynamic  part  of 
the  work,  to  consider  one  other  circumstance  at  once  static  and 
dynamic  which  not  to  recognize  is  to  render  any  investigation  of 
sugar  inadequate.  This  is  the  relationship  which  sugar  bears  to 
the  other  great  saccharine,  honey.  Statically,  sugar  is  connected 
with  honey  because  these  two  commodities  have  so  many  qualities 
in  common,  and  are  therefore  suited  to  satisfy  so  nearly  the  same 
categories  of  wants.  Dynamically,  also,  they  are  related,  because 
the  increasing  consumption  of  sugar  meant  the  decreasing  use  of 
honey,  as  the  superiority  of  the  new  saccharine  gradually  asserted 
itself  and  the  old  fell  consequently  more  and  more  into  the  back- 
ground from  an  economic  point  of  view. 

Honey  was  the  sweet  in  use  throughout  Europe  for  many  ages 
before  sugar  was  introduced  from  Asia.  "Honey,"  says  Moseley, 
"was  the  standard  of  sweetness  of  the  ancients,"  ^  and  Lord  Bacon 
adds :  "There  be  three  things  in  use  for  sweetness,  sugar,  honey, 
manna.  For  sugar,  it  was  scarce  known  to  the  ancients,  and  little 
used.  It  is  found  in  canes  ....  Sugar  hath  put  down  the  use 
of  honey  insomuch  that  we  have  lost  those  observations  and  prep- 
arations of  honey  which  the  ancients  had  when  it  was  more  in 
price."  2  Lord  Bacon  does  not  attempt  to  account  in  any  way  for 
this  substitution  of  sugar  for  honey  in  the  diet  of  mankind.  It 
is  evident,  however,  that  for  any  so  decided  step  there  must  have 
been  good  and  sufficient  reason — and  the  nature  of  the  problem 

*^Dr.  Benj.  Moseley,  essay  on  Sugar  in  "Medical  Essays,"  1799.  p.  64. 
'Works  of  Francis  Bacon,  Lord  Chancellor  of  England,  Philadelphia, 
1842,  II,  p.  82,  and  p.  116. 

(21) 


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SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


indicates  that  that  reason  must  lie  well  within  the  province  of 
economics. 

It  is  a  commonplace  hardly  worth  the  repeating  that  man's 
economic  life  is  but  a  series  of  choices  in  which  he  aims  always  to 
select  and  take  that  which  under  the  circumstances  will  yield  him 
the  greatest  sum  total  of  utility  in  whatever  form  such  utility  may 
appear  to  him  as  desirable.  It  is  also  obvious  that  in  his  economic 
life  man's  choices  will  be  regulated,  in  so  far  as  what  he  aims  to 
secure  is  not  a  perfectly  free  good,  by  the  wish  to  obtain  the  great- 
est amount  of  utility  for  the  least  expenditure.  This  motive  is 
indeed  so  natural  and  so  universal  that  it  has  been  adopted  as 
typical  of  all  economic  activity  and  has  even  been  erected  into  what 
has  been  called  the  fundamental  economc  formula.  It  must,  there- 
fore, be  adopted  here  as  the  guide  for  the  investigation  of  the 
transition  from  honey  to  sugar  in  the  consumption  of  saccharines. 

Before  this  formula  is  directly  applied  to  the  problem  under 
consideration  it  must,  however,  be  analyzed  into  its  component 
elements  and  principles  in  order  that  it  may  be  more  accurately 
applied  to  the  subject  in  all  its  phases.  The  immediate  zis  a  tergo 
which  drives  all  men  to  economic  activity  of  any  sort  is  unfulfilled 
desire ;  and  the  fact  that  in  general  no  desire  can  be  gratified  to 
the  satiation  point  leaves  in  the  multitude  of  partly  satisfied  wants 
a  great  number  of  stimuli  ready  to  assert  themselves  and  drive 
man  to  action  when  one  shall  have  become  from  any  cause  more 
powerful  than  the  others.  Man's  marginal  utilities,  then,  ranging 
over  his  whole  economic  life  and  representing,  as  they  do,  his 
partly  satisfied  wants,  become  the  motive  power  to  his  activities. 
In  regulating  these  activities,  man's  purpose  is  evidently  to  obtain 
the  maximum  satisfaction  of  each  and  all  of  his  wants,  and  the 
only  means  of  accomplishing  this  end  is  clearly  in  every  case  to 
give  as  little  as  possible  of  something  that  he  has,  in  obtaining 
as  much  as  possible  of  something  he  has  not — and  so  to  attain  to 
the  greatest  possible  total  utility  throughout  the  whole  extent  of 
his  consumption.  This  general  ever-present  desire  to  get  from 
life  the  greatest  total  utility,  and  the  ordering  of  each  step  in  the 
process  by  a  comparison  of  marginal  utilities,  whereby  some  part 
of  that  which  appears   as  having   the   least   utility   is  given  in 


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SUGAR  VERSUS   HONEY  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


23 


exchange  for  something  which  appears  to  have  the  greatest,  repre- 
sents, simply,  in  detail,  that  which  the  economic  formula  sums  up 
concisely  as  the  desire  to  obtain  the  greatest  possible  pleasure, 
and  in  so  doing  to  undergo  the  least  possible  amount  of  pain  or 
sacrifice. 

This  economic  formula  applies  with  peculiar  force  when  man 
finds  himself,  as  in  the  present  case,  in  the  position  of  choosing 
definitely  between  the  consumption  of  two  commodities  which 
satisfy  fundamentally  the  same  want.  It  is  then  that  the  calcula- 
tion of  utilities  must  be  more  exact  than  at  any  other  time.  In  this 
case,  as  between  honey  and  sugar,  the  consumer  is  called  upon 
to  consider  whether  the  adoption  of  the  new  good,  sugar,  will 
result  for  him  in  an  increase  of  his  whole  utility,  or  whether,  in 
other  words,  he  will  procure  from  its-  use  a  greater  satisfaction  at 
a  relatively  lower  cost,  such  cost  to  appear  to  him  either  in  the 
immediate  performing  of  muscular  or  mental  labor,  or  in  the  more 
indirect  expenditure  of  goods  on  the  market. 

For  the  complete  understanding  of  the  transition  from  the  use 
of  honey  to  that  of  sugar,  the  relation  of  utility  to  costs,  or  to 
disutility,  must  be  carefully  examined  and  calculated  as  these  two 
phenomena  appear  in  the  production  and  consumption  of  the  two 
commodities.  The  investigation  will  show,  moreover,  that  while 
the  actual  cost  of  producing  a  given  physical  quantity  of  honey 
is  not  appreciably,  if  at  all,  less  than  that  of  producing  the  same 
physical  quantity  of  sugar,  the  utility  of  the  sugar  enormously 
exceeds  that  of  the  honey ; — in  the  light  of  which  fact,  the  reason 
why  man  has  adopted  sugar  as  the  staple  saccharine  becomes 
apparent  at  the  outset. 

From  the  side  of  the  relative  cost  of  production,  the  chief  ques- 
tion as  between  the  producing  of  honey  and  sugar,  is  the  question 
as  to  the  relative  scale  at  which  to  be  profitable  at  all  the  two 
industries  must  be  pursued,  and  so,  primarily,  that  of  the  initial 
or  capital  costs.  Bee-keeping,  as  is  well  known,  can  be  carried 
on  by  an  individual  in  connection  with  almost  any  other  pursuit, 
and  on  as  small  a  scale  as  is  desirable.  The  necessary  outlay  of 
capital  is  very  small — the  appurtenances  for  one  colony  being 
small  in  themselves — and  yet  large  enough  to  allow  the  individual 


2A 


SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


SUGAR  VERSUS   HONEY  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


25 


to  procure  just  as  good  honey,  and  comparatively  as  much,  as  if 
the  activity  assumed  much  larger  proportions.  The  land  requisite 
for  bee-keeping  is  practically  a  free  gift  of  nature,  since  the  best 
honey  is  collected  by  the  bees  from  surrounding  pasture  lands, 
which  as  such  are  already  yielding  kn  adequate  economic  return, 
and  from  which  this  other  product,  honey,  may  yet  be  extracted 
without  any  detriment  to  the  productivity  of  the  land  for  its 
original  grazing  purposes.  The  labor  required  in  bee-keeping 
varies,  naturally,  with  the  number  of  the  bees  kept — one  man  being 
able  with  constant  effort  to  tend  a  great  many  hives.  From  all 
this  it  becomes  clear  that  the  initial  expenditure  for  engaging  in 
bee-keeping  is  not  necessarily  very  large.  The  true  significance 
and  bearing  of  this  fact  can  be  grasped  only  after  the  production 
of  sugar  has  been  considered  from  the  same  point  of  view.  At 
present  it  should  be  remarked  that  the  actual  physical  return  from 
this  expenditure  is,  relatively,  not  very  large,  and  bears  close  rela- 
tion to  the  actual  amount  of  the  investment.  In  other  words,  the 
scale  of  production  in  bee-keeping  makes  very  little  difference. 
Before  leaving  this  subject  attention  should  also  be  called  to  the 
fact  of  the  great  share  in  the  production  of  honey  which,  so  to 
speak,  unappropriable  natural  forces  play.  The  activities  of  the 
bees  are  in  large  measure  uncontrollable,  while  the  flowers  which 
lend  themselves  to  the  extraction  of  honey  must  remain  practically 
wild,  since  to  expend  labor  in  cultivating  them,  and  in  taking  up 
land  for  that  purpose,  would  so  increase  the  costs  of  production  as 
to  eat  up  all  the  profits  that  could  reasonably  be  expected  from 
honev.  In  the  light  of  this  fact  it  becomes  clear  that  capitalistic 
production— as  Bohm-Bawerk  uses  the  temi  in  the  sense  of  round- 
about methods,  by  the  harnessing  and  controlling  of  the  forces  of 
nature— can  play  practically  no  part  in  the  production  of  honey, 
and  that  therefore  the  actual  pin  sical  return  must  bear  a  very 
constant  ratio  to  the  actual  physical  amount  of  expenditure  or  coVt 
of  production. 

The  case  of  sugar  is  different  throughout.  The  necessary 
investment  of  capital  has  always  been  enormous,  entailing  in  the 
earlier  days,  in  addition  to  the  various  works  indispensable  to  any 
estate,  a  great  outlay  in  purchasing  slaves,  who  alone  could  per- 


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form  the  very  trying  labor  in  the  fields;  and  requiring  in  these 
later  days  an  application  of  capital  relatively  much  greater  than 
that  found  necessary  in  the  producing  of  any  of  the  other  agri- 
cultural staples.  To  be  undertaken  at  all  the  production  of  sugar 
needs  this  great  preparatory  outlay.  In  its  cultivation  and  grind- 
ing and  boiling,  so  many  and  so  expensive  forms  of  capital  are 
required  that  in  order  for  it  to  be  profitable  at  all  the  whole 
undertaking  must  assume  large  proportions.  The  positive  costs, 
then,  attendant  upon  any  production  of  sugar  are  necessarily  very 
large. 

In  addition  to  these  positive  costs  there  are  also  many  of  a  nega- 
tive character  that  are  inseparably  associated  with  the  manage- 
ment of  a  sugar  estate.  These  appear  chiefly  in  the  form  of  risks 
which  accompany  all  cultivation  of  the  cane,  both  because  of  the 
nature  of  the  countries  in  which  alone  it  can  be  grown  to  advan- 
tage, and  because,  also,  of  the  character  of  the  laborers  who  in  all 
these  countries  must  be  relied  on  for  the  field  work.  The  peculiar 
nature  of  the  sugar  cane  itself  plays  also  a  large  part  in  bringing 
the  element  of  risk  into  its  cultivation.  These  risks  attendant 
upon  sugar  planting  are  no  new  thing,  but  have  been  always 
present  wherever  the  cane  has  been  cultivated.  That  they  asserted 
themselves  very  early  in  the  West  India  Islands  is  attested  to  by 
Sir  Dalby  Thomas,  who  wrote  in  1690,  and  who  has  admirably 
summed  up  the  "casualties"  which  in  this  day,  as  well  as  in  his 
own,  "are  apt  to  befall  sugar."    He  says: 

"Plants  in  the  ground  are  apt  to  be  devoured,  wounded  and  torn  by  ants, 
or  undermined  and  destroyed  at  the  roots  by  mugworms.  Too  much  rain 
or  too  much  drought  in  either  season  is  a  certain  diminution  of  the  crop, 
if  not  a  total  destruction  of  the  plant,  nay  if  the  rains  come  too  late  which 
often  happens,  a  whole  year's  planting  is  lost.  When  all  these  mischiefs 
are  escaped  and  the  canes  of  a  considerable  height,  they  are  then  liable  to 
be  twisted,  broke  and  totally  spoiled  by  the  furious  hurricanes  which,  once 
in  three  or  four  years,  like  a  fit  of  an  ague,  shake  the  whole  islands,  not 
only  do  the  crops  an  injury,  but  sometimes  tumble  down  and  level  their 
mills,  workhouses  and  strongest  buildings.  But  escaping  all  these  as  the 
canes  ripen  they  grow  more  and  more  combustible  and  are,  therefore, 
subject  to  the  malice  and  drunken  rage  of  angry  and  desperate  runaway 
negroes  as  well  as  so  many  other  accidents,  of  fire,  the  fury  whereof  when 


4    *» 


•*•  iljlp^' 


SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


SUGAR  VERSUS  HONEY  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


27 


once  got  into  a  field  of  canes  is  extremely  quick,  terrible  and  scarcely  to  be 
resisted  before  it  has  destroyed  the  whole  parcel ;  but  when  they  are  brought 
to  full  perfection  for  cutting  and  the  planter's  expectations  as  ripe  as  they,  if 
tinseasonable  rains  happen,  or  that  no  winds  blow,  then  they  all  rot  and 
perish  in  the  ground,  the  slaves  and  servants  all  stand  idle,  looking  upon 
their  master's  decaying  fortune,  and  at  last  are  only  employed  in  clearing 
the  ground  again  from  that  useless  rubbish  in  which  all  that  year's  hope 
has  perished.  .  .  .  Nay,  besides  all  has  been  said,  sometimes  disease 
amongst  horses  and  cattle  will  in  a  very  short  time  sweep  away  a  whole 
year's  profit,  beside  constant  charge  of  recruiting  the  natural  decay  of  all 
living  creatures."* 

It  has  seemed  worth  while  to  quote  Sir  Dalby  Thomas  thus 
at  length  because  the  trials  of  a  sugar  planter  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  as  he  has  here  given  them  voice,  have  been  echoed  almost 
in  his  very  words  by  all  those  who  since  his  day  have  attempted 
to  cultivate  the  cane,  and  have  in  their  most  prominent  charac- 
teristics been  gone  through  with  by  a  company  which  a  few  years 
ago  bought  up  a  plantation  in  Cuba.  On  this  plantation  modem 
capitalistic  methods  have  been  applied  in  the  greatest  possible 
perfection — no  means  have  been  spared  to  utilize  the  favorable 
and  to  overcome  the  adverse  forces  of  nature,  and  yet  the  series 
of  contingencies  that  have  befallen  this  one  sugar  plantation  are 
such  as  would  long  ago  have  crippled  an  undertaking  backed  with 
less  capital,  or  in  which  the  hope  of  large  profit  was  less  secure. 
On  this  sugar  plantation  in  question,  which  embraces  twenty  thou- 
sand acres  of  land,  of  which  four  thousand  acres  were  last  year 
planted  in  cane,  there  were  in  the  course  of  the  season  several 
large  and  serious  fires  which  burned  over  one  thousand  acres, 
all  of  which  had  been  covered  with  cane.  These  cane  fires,  which 
were  doubtless  earlier  a  most  serious  problem  to  be  reckoned  with, 
have  in  later  years  been  rendered  less  destructive,  from  a  financial 
point  of  view.  Improved  methods  of  cutting  and  transporting  the 
cane  are  largely  responsible  for  this.  If  the  cane  can  be  ground 
and  the  juice  expressed  soon  enough  after  the  burning  to  prevent 
fermentation,  the  mere  fact  of  the  fire  does  not  injure  the  quality 

"  Sir  Dalby  Thomas,  "Historical  Account  of  the  Rise  and  Growth  of  the 
West  India  Collonies,"  1690.  printed  in    the   Harleian    Miscellany,    1808- 

1813,  n,  p.  369. 


1 1  . 


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i.'. 


!*•        J    *«#, 


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1 


of  tlie  sugar.  Moreover,  the  fields  are  now  planted  in  blocks, 
with  strips  of  unplanted  land  between  them  to  lessen  the  proba- 
bility of  extensive  fires.  With  these  arrangements,  it  is  claimed 
that  the  item  of  loss  through  fires  does  not  enter  to  any 
great  degree  into  the  budget  of  the  year's  expenses,  although  the 
possibility  always  remains  that  a  very  destructive  fire  may  occur 
and  bring  with  it  untold  loss,  and  so  serious  have  these  cane  fires 
been  in  times  past  that  it  has  been  rated  a  criminal  oflFense  in 
Cuba  to  refuse  aid  in  extinguishing  one,  no  matter  whether  the 
person  called  on  for  assistance  is  employed  on  the  burning  estate 

or  not.* 

Most  of  the  evils  mentioned  by  Thomas  as  resulting  from 
untimely  rain  and  from  hurricane  have  been  experienced  also 
during  the  past  year  upon  the  estate  in  question.  In  six  months 
there  have  been  two  most  destructive  floods,  which  destroyed  the 
railroads  and  much  of  the  apparatus  on  the  estate-the  damage 
resulting  from  the  first  flood  and  hurricane  alone  amounting  in 
the  aggregate  to  about  twenty  thousand  dollars.  In  addition  to 
this  the  rainy  season  in  the  spring  of  1904  set  in  so  early  that 
when  only  two-thirds  of  the  cane  had  been  cut,  all  the  work  m 
the  fields  and  in  the  mill  had  to  be  shut  down,  and  it  was  only 
due  to  a  subsequent  period  of  dry  weather  which  came  unex- 
pectedly at  the  end  of  May  that  the  remaining  one-third  of  the 
cane  was  spared  to  the  growers.  The  premature  arrival  of  a 
rainy  season  works  great  injury  to  a  plantation  m  many  ways. 
Not  only  does  the  mud  in  the  fields  make  the  haulmg  of  the  heavy 

*This  present  law  in  Cuba,  with  regard  to  fires  in  the  cane  comes  as  a 
curious  echo,  so  to  speak,  of  an  act  which  was  passed  in  Barbados  on  Apnl 
14  le^^S  to  prevent  the  firing  of  canes,  and  which  reads  m  part  as  follows: 
"It  is  hereby  enacted,  published  and  declared,  That  whatsoever  person  or 
persons  shall  at  any  time  hereafter  wittingly  or  willingly  burn  or  set  on 
fire  any  sugar-cane-field  or  other  place  where  sugar  canes  do  grow  m  any 
place  of  this  Island  shall  for  every  such  offence  to  be  proved  receive  forty 
lashes  upon  his  naked  back  and  branded  on  the  forehead  with  a  hot  iron 
with  the  letter  R  and  become  servant  to  the  party  or  parties  that  shall  be 
so  damnified  by  the  burning  or  setting  on  fire  the  said  sugar  canes  for  1*c 
term  of  seven  years."  Acts  passed  in  the  Island  of  Barbadoes,  1643-1762 
incl..  compiled  by  Richard  Hall,  Esq.,  1764,  P-  21. 


-I 


28' 


SUGAE  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


loads  of  cut  cane  very  difficult— the  bulls  and  oxen  employed  in 
pulling  the  carts  being  often  obliged  to  wade  through  mud  up 
to  the  girth— but  the  quality  of  the  juice  is  also  seriously  affected, 
it  hting  almost  impossible  to  separate  the  sugar  out  when  the  cane 
is  cut  in  the  rainy  season. 

Such  are  the  costs,  positive  and  negative,  that  are  inevitably 
to  be  reckoned  with  in  the  production  of  sugar,  and  yet  so  great 
is  the  return  from  an  estate  thus  equipped  that  the  cost  of  produc- 
ing one  pound  of  sugar  is  not  any  greater,  and  in  many  cases  is 
much  less,  than  the  cost  of  producing  one  pound  of  honey,  with 
the  comparatively  slender  expenses  that  are  to  be  undergone  in 
bee-keeping.    The  reason  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  pos- 
sibilities for  capitalization  in  the  sugar  industry  are  almost  with- 
out limit— natural  forces  of  every  sort  may  be  harnessed  and 
utilized  and  so  combined  as  to  reach  the  highest  possible  point  of 
productivity.    The  necessary  elements  of  productive  agency,  also, 
for  the  raising  and  making  of  sugar,  are  such  that  they  cannot 
be  brought  together  on  a   small    scale,    but    that    once  brought 
together  they  yield  still  a  physical  product  in  the  long  run  rela- 
tively much  greater  than  is  the  amount  of  honey  which  results 
from  the  outlay  of  capital  necessary  for  bee-keeping.    It  is  thu3 
that  on  the  side  of  cost  of  production  sugar  must  be  given  if  any- 
thing the  advantage  over  honey,  namely,  that  the  expense  incurred 
in  producing  a  given  physical  quantity  of  sugar  is  less  than  that 
undergone  in  the  production  of  the  same  amount  of  honey.** 

*  It  should  perhaps  here  be  noted  that  whereas  honey  is  essentially  suited 
to  the  early  days  of  society  when  trade  is  not  developed,  sugar  is  just  as 
essentially  the  saccharine  of  a  commercial  era.  This  has  been  clearly 
the  case  in  Europe.  In  India,  it  is  true,  where  the  sugar  is  not 
refined,  but  the  people  drink  the  juice  raw,  the  cultivation  of  the  cane  is 
carried  on  in  the  gardens  of  the  various  families.  Just  as  soon,  however, 
as  any  attempt  at  grinding  or  refining  is  made,  the  necessary  outlay  of 
capital  requires  that  sugar  be  produced  in  quantities  large  enough  for 
exchange— otherm'ise  the  capital  would  in  nowise  pay  for  itself.  It  is, 
therefore,  quite  natural  that  before  trade  was  developed  in  Europe  the 
consumption  of  honey  was  preralent,  sugar  superseding  it  only  when  trade 
relations  were  sufficiently  developed  to  allow  the  production  of  sugar  in 
quantities  large  enough  to  render  it  economic. 


I 


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SUGAR  VERSUS  HONEY  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


29 


There  is,  however,  in  addition  to  the  costs  incurred  in  produc- 
ing commodities,  another  element  to  be  considered  in  calculating 
the  total  utility  that  results  from  the  economic  process  of  produc- 
ing and  consuming  goods.  This  element  is  the  utihty  of  the 
physical  amount  of  the  good  produced ;  and  in  the  case  of  honey 
versus  sugar  the  advantage  rests  here,  also,  as  on  the  side  of 
costs,  with  the  latter  of  these  commodities,  so  that  to  substitute 
sugar  for  honey  in  one's  scale  of  utilities  would  be  doubly  to 
increase  one's  total  utility,  first  by  decreasing  the  amount  of  cost 
to  be  undergone  in  obtaining  the  same  amount  of  saccharine  sub- 
stance; and,  secondly,  by  a  direct  increase  in  utility,  since  the 
sugar  thus  obtained  would  possess  a  greater  amount  of  utility 
than  the  same  quantity  of  honey.  This  superiority  of  sugar  may 
upon  examination  be  resolved  into  the  fundamental  economic 
categories  of  time,  place  and  form  utilities.  These  in  this  com- 
modity are  added  to  the  stuff  utility — sweetness,  which,  while  it 
is  common  to  both  of  these  saccharines,  is  yet  present  in  sugar 
in  a  much  greater  degree. 

On  account  of  its  chemical  composition  cane  sugar  is  s\veeter 
than  honey,  for  the  sugars  which  honey  contains  are  essentially 
less  sweet  than  cane  sugar.  This  fact  has  also  in  the  common 
everyday  consumption  of  the  everyday  man  become  most  appar- 
ent. "The  sweetness  of  sugar,"  says  Oldmixon,  "as  far  exceeds 
that  of  honey,  as  a  pippin  does  a  crab.  'Tis  not  surfeiting,  but 
the  cleanest  and  best  sweet  in  the  universe."  ^ 

The  added  place,  time  and  form  utilities  of  sugar  have  been 
concisely  stated  by  Karl  Ritter  in  his  article  upon  the  early  histor>' 
of  the  sugar  cane.  Ritter  is  in  reality  emphasizing  the  supe- 
riority of  refined  cane  sugar  over  the  crude  raw  juice  of  the  cane, 
which,  before  the  discovery  of  the  refining  process,  was  the  only 
form  in  which  the  product  of  the  cane  was  known  to  man.  In 
general,  however,  these  advantages  will  readily  be  seen  to  apply 
to  sugar  as  it  is  known  to-day  as  over  against  honey,  and  it  is  to 
emphasize  this  difference  that  I  shall  cite  them  here.  Ritter  speaks 
of  the  refining  process  as  changing  the  raw  juice  of  the  sugar 

•  Oldmixon,  "The  British  Empire  in  America,"  1741,  II,  p.  146. 


30 


SUGAR   AS  A   COMMODITY. 


SUGAR  VERSUS   HONEY  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


to  the  "purest  and  most  nourishing  aroma,  fitted  for  preservation 
during  long  periods,  and  for  being  transported/'  and  he  declares 
that  it  lent  to  the  sugar  cane  itself  a  much  greater  significance 
than  it  had  hitherto  enjoyed,  in  raising  it  to  a  'Tulturpfimize'' 
and  a  "Colowialgewachs;'  in  attracting  its  product,  sugar,  into  the 
trade  and  commerce  of  both  hemispheres,  and  in  making  its  profits 
very  influential  in  the  determining  of  the  colonial  systems,  the 
managing  of  states  and  politics,  and  in  the  general  policy  toward 
the  slave  trade."^  In  general,  honey  can  be  seen  to  suflFer  from 
these  disadvantages  of  the  unrefined  sugar  cane  juice  as  Ritter 
enumerates  them  here,  and  thus  to  lack  specific  time,  form  and 
place  utilities  which  sugar  on  the  other  hand  possesses. 

Cane  sugar  is,  in  the  first  place,  to  consider  its  form  utility,  a 
purer  sweet  than  honey.    It  is  in  itself  one  of  the  original  forms 
of  sugar  as  it  exists  in  nature,  whereas  honey,  in  addition  to  its 
saccharine  qualities,  contains  other  substances  which  tend  natur- 
ally always  to  increase  its  bulk   compared  with  the  actual  utility 
it  affords.     Sugar  also,  by  reason  of  its   greater  purity,  is  much 
more  soluble  than  honey,  and  can,  therefore,  be  used  in  a  greater 
number  of  foods,  the  element  of  variety  thus  introduced  into  its 
consumption  serving  to  keep  up  its  marginal  utility,  and  to  allow 
a  greater  amount  to  be  consumed,  and  a  greater  utility  to  be 
enjoyed  than  would  otherwise  be  the  case.    The  added  place  utility 
of  sugar  over  honey  appears  in  the  fact  that  in  its  dry  crystallized 
form  sugar  can  be  transported  easily  all  over  the  world,  and  that 
it  therefore  acquires  a  value  in  exchange  that  honey  can  never 
possess  in  nearly  so  great  a  degree ;  while  the  time  utility  can  be 
seen  in  the  prospective  value  which    sugar  acquires  after  present 
wants  are  satisfied,  because  it  can  be  so  easily  and  compactly 
stored  up  without  danger  of  its  spoiling.      The  transition  from 
the  consumption  of  honey  to  that  of  sugar  having  been  thus  eluci- 
dated and  explained  from  an  economic  point  of  view,  the  way 
lies  unobstructed  to  the  consideration  of  the  actual  stages  in  the 

'Karl  Ritter,  "0ber  die  geographische  Verbreitung  des  Zuckerrohrs 
(Saccharum  omdnarum)  in  der  Alien  Welt  vor  dessen  Verpflanzung  in  die 
Ncue  Welt"  Published  in  the  "Abhandlungen  der  Koniglichen  Akademie 
der  Wissenschaften  zu  Berlin,  aus  dem  Jahre  1839,"  in  1841. 


^     w 


**     M 


,.  iw       41 


#••1 


31 


transition  and  the  manner  of  its  accomplishment.  This  will  resolve 
itself,  from  the  particular  point  of  view  from  which  it  will  here 
be  regarded,  into  the  history  of  sugar  as  a  commodity. 


SUGAR  IN   ASIA. 


<)<9 


CHAPTER  V. 

Sugar  in  Asia. 

To  trace  the  story  of  sugar  in  the  successive  stages  of  its  career, 
and  to  consider  it  at  each  stage  in  the  midst  of  the  various  circum- 
stances conditioning  its  existence,  is  to  elaborate  a  history  of 
peculiar  interest  and  charm.    For  it  is  doubtful  whether  any  other 
economic  good  has  so  consistently  been  associated  with  the  great 
forces  and  peoples  that  have  been  most  representative  of  the  dif- 
ferent periods  of  the  world's  history.     The  earliest  accounts  of 
the  sugar  cane  are  in  the  records  of  the  Hindu  civilization  of 
India,  where  as  a  regular  article  of  food  it  had  probably  been 
used  for  many  centuries  before  its  existence  was  discovered  by 
explorers  from  the  western   world.     Even   after  its  discovery  it 
remained  undisturbed  in  its  original   home   until,  in  the  earliest 
Middle  Ages,  the  Arabs  began  to  spread  over  the  surrounding 
countries  and  to  carry  with  them  their  culture  as  well  as  their 
arms.     It  was  about  the  sugar  cane  as  a  medicine  that  much  of 
the  chemical  and  otherwise  scientific  research  of  these  people 
centered,  and  when  they  began  their  conquests  and  their  dissemi- 
nation of  the  civilization  of  the  East,  they  carried  the  sugar  cane 
with  them  as  a  characteristic  and  important  part  of  that  Oriental 
culture  of  which  they  were  the  conservers  as  well  as  the  dissemi- 
nators.    In  the  reconstruction  of  Europe,   which   followed  the 
Dark  Ages,  sugar  had  an  established  place  among  the  utilities  of 
the  people ;  and,  finally,  when  Europe  started  out  on  her  period 
of  over-sea  expansion,  sugar  was  again  selected  as  one  of  the 
chief  products  upon  which  the  wealth  of  the  colonial  provinces 
and  so  of  the  mother  countries  should  be  based.     Through  the 
succeeding  centuries  in  which  the  history  of  Europe  was  shaping 
itself  along  the  lines  of  mercantilism  and  absolutism,  and  pro- 
tective duties  were  high,  sugar  was  one  of  the  most  prominent 
items  in  the  customs  rolls,  and  much  of  the  colonial  policy  of  the 

(32) 


•■—J* 


at 


!• 


'*  • 


various  European  States  centered  itself  about  this  commodity. 
The  first  impetus  to  the  beet-root  industry  in  Europe  for  the 
purpose  of  extracting  sugar  is  closely  identified  with  Napoleon 
and  the  Continental  Blockade,  while  for  an  understanding  of  the 
present  role  which  this  sort  of  sugar  is  playing  in  the  economic 
world  one  has  but  to  cast  one's  eye  at  the  enormous  extent  of  the 
culture  of  the  sugar-beet  and  the  manufacture  of  its  product  in 
all  parts  of  Europe  to-day.  The  modern  tendency,  also,  to  utilize 
the  tropics  by  the  application  of  the  intellect  and  energy,  and 
above  all,  of  the  capital  of  the  temperate  zone,  has  greatly  revived 
the  culture  of  the  sugar  cane,  and  has  brought  this  commodity 
once  more  into  the  arena  of  international  controversy.  To  follow 
in  greater  detail  these  various  stages  in  the  history  of  the  sugar 
cane,  and  of  its  product,  refined  sugar,  is  the  purpose  of  the 
remaining  part  of  this  work.  This  will  resolve  itself  naturally 
into  two  greater  divisions.  As  outlined  at  the  beginning  of  this 
paper,  in  the  first  of  these  the  production  of  sugar  values  will 
receive  most  emphasis,  since  in  the  earlier  days  of  the  history 
of  sugar,  before  its  consumption  had  gone  beyond  the  point  at 
which  men  regarded  it  as  a  luxury,  it  was  in  reality  the  produc- 
tion of  these  values  that  was  most  prominent  in  connection  with 
the  sugar  cane.  The  production  of  values  in  sugar  by  the 
respective  processes  of  cultivation,  refining  and  exchange  must 
accordingly  here  receive  attention.  In  the  second  division,  as 
intimated,  the  chief  stress  will  be  laid  upon  the  consumption  of 
sugar  values ;  since  with  the  area  of  the  cultivation  of  the  cane 
practically  complete — ^as  far  as  the  limits  of  the  present  work  can 
carry  it — and  with  the  establishment  of  the  refining  industry 
and  the  development  of  the  trade  in  sugar  accounted  for,  the 
interest  will  naturally  center  in  the  history  of  the  consumption 
of  this  good. 

To  begin,  then,  with  the  geography  of  the  culture  of  the  sugar 
cane.  The  earliest  home  of  the  cane  is  now  generally  believed 
to  have  been  Bengal,  in  India.  Various  facts  combine  to  make 
it  most  probable  that  this  belief  is  founded  on  truth.  First,  the 
country  of  Bengal  was  the  first  place  in  which  sugar  was  ever 
found,  so  that  the  very  earliest  records  extant  point  to  that  place 

3 


j*r 


SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


as  the  home  of  the  cane.  Then,  too,  the  sugar  cane  has  never 
been  found  growing  wild.'  This,  together  with  the  fact  that  ie 
its  cultivated  state  it  was  found  earliest  in  Bengal,  makes  it  seem 
probable  that  Bengal  was  its  original  habitat.  The  extreme  age, 
also,  of  the  Indian  civilization,  and  the  identity  of  the  cane  with 
it,  as  far  back  as  one  can  go,  force  one  to  the  conclusion  that 
sugar  belonged  by  right  of  birth  to  this  world-old  culture,  behind 
which  its  record,  if  such  indeed  there  is,  cannot  possibly  be 
iraceo  • 

The  most  scientific  study  of  the  problems  in  connection  with 
the  earlier  phases  of  the  history  of  the  sugar  cane  was  pursued 

•The  question  as  to  whether  the  sugar  cane  can  be  successfully  culti- 
vated from  the  seed  is  as  yet  undecided.    That,  so  far  as  records  go,  this 
method  of  planting  has  never  been  pursued  to  any  extent,  seems  estab- 
lished beyond  a  doubt,    Ritter  dismisses  the  seed  of  the  cane  (1.  c,  p.  MO) 
as  playing  no  appreciable  part  in  its  cultivation,  and  botanists  for  many 
years  have  accepted  it  as  a  fact  that  the  seed  could  not  be  so  utilized. 
Recently,  however,  experiments  have  been  made  in  the  raising  of  cane  by 
the  seed,  and  some  specialists  are  hopeful  that  the  results  will  be  successful. 
Mr.  Charles  S.  Griffin,  of  the  Tokyo  Imperial  University,  in  a  paper 
entitled  '*The  Sugar  Industry  in  Europe"  (Quarterly  Journal  of  Economics, 
Volume  XVII,  p.  13),  makes  the  following  statements:    "Only  within  the 
last  dozen  years  or  so  has  it  been  rediscovered  that  the  cane  can  produce 
fertile  seeds,  and  serious  attempts  made  to  improve  it  by  the  selection  of 
seeds  for  planting.    It  is  as  yet  too  early  to  judge  whether  these  experiments 
may  in  time  lead  to  the  development  of  the  sugar  cane  similar  to  that 
which  has  taken  place  in  the  case  of  the  beet"    In  a  footnote  he  adds  a 
quotation  from  Mr.  Harrison  in  a  paper  entitled  "The  Results  of  Recent 
Scientific  Researches  Into  the  Agricultural  Improvements  of  the  Sugar 
Cane,"  in  Sugar  Cme.  September,  1897-     The  quotation  is  as  follows: 
"Until  the  last  ten  years  the  idea  that  the  sugar  cane  could  produce  fertile 
seeds  was  by  the  great  majority  of  planters  and  botanists  regarded  as 
absolutely  without  proof,  and  attempts  to  raise  canes  from  seeds  were 
regarded  to  be  as  futile  as  I  hold  attempts  to  obtain  graft  hybrids  arc. 
How  this  scientific  and  popular  error  arose  it  is  difficult  to  tell.     Some 
years  ago,  with  the  assistance  of  Mr.  Carruthers,  the  keeper  of  botany  at 
the  British  Museum,  I  searched  through  a  lot  of  old  botanical  works ;  and 
we  could  find  no  trace  of  this  belief  until  about   1750,  when  Hughes 
wrote  his  'Natural  History  of  Barbadoes.'    Nay,  more,  we  found  descrip- 
tions of  the  seed  of  the  sugar  cane  so  complete  and  accurate  that  Carruthers 
considered  they  must  take  precedence  of  all  recent  work." 


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by  the  geographer,  Karl  Ritter,  who  published  the  result  of  his 
investigations  in  the  paper  already  referred  to.^  Ritter  has  m 
this  work  drawn  deeply  on  his  classical  and  scientific  learning, 
and  by  far-reaching  etymological  and  philological  tests,  as  well 
as  by  a  rigorous  application  of  botanical  and  physical  laws,  of 
the  influences  and  conditions  of  climate,  and  soil  and  the  like,  he 
seems  to  have  won  the  case  for  the  view  which  makes  Bengal  the 
original  home  of  the  sugar  cane.  The  great  majority  of  those 
who  have  written  since  his  time  refer  to  him  as  to  the  authority 
on  this  subject.  The  botanist  Alphonse  de  Candolle  has  paid  fit- 
ting tribute  to  Ritter's  work  in  his  book  on  "L'Origine  des 
Plantes  Cultivees."  I  shall  quote  his  testimony  at  this  point,  since 
I  have  used  Ritter  as  the  chief  source  for  this  present  chapter  on 
the  earliest  history  of  the  cane.    De  Candolle  says : 

"Les  origines  de  la  canne  a  sucre.  de  sa  culture,  et  de  la  fabrication  du 
Sucre,  ont  ete  I'objet  d'un  travail  tres  remarquable  du  geographe  Karl 
Ritter  .    pour  I'habitation  primitive  de  I'espece  que  nous  interesse 

particulierement    c'est    le    meiUeur   guide    et    les    faits    observes    depuis 
quarante  ans  appuient  en  generate  ou  confirment  ses  opmions."* 

The  first  knowledge  of  any  sweet  substance  growing  in  canes 
seems  to  have  been  revealed  to  the  western  worid  by  the  soldiers 
of  Alexander  the  Great.  Before  his  time  the  Europeans  had 
known  in  general  only  the  honey,  and  their  ideas  as  to  the  exact 
nature  and  sources  even  of  this  form  of  sweetness  were  at  best 
but  uncertain  and  vague.  The  companions  of  Alexander,  in  the 
course  of  their  wanderings  in  Asia,  came  upon  people  who  used 
a  substance  extracted  from  reeds  as  their  saccharine,  and  brought 
home  with  them  wonderful  tales  of  their  discovery.  However, 
their  reports  but  served  to  render  the  confusion  in  the  minds  of 
the  Greeks  and  Romans  still  more  profound,  for  the  Macedonians, 
in  addition  to  the  true  sugar  cane,  which  beyond  a  doubt  they 
did  find  in  Asia,  brought  news  of  another  substance,  also  found 
in  reeds,  which  they  themselves  confused  with  cane  sugar,  and 

•  See  ante,  p.  30- 

•  Alphonse  de  Candolle,  "L'Origine  des   Plantes  CuUivees,"   1886,  pp. 

122,  123. 


36 


SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


of  which  also  they  seem  to  have  brought  samples  with  them.  This 
was  the  tabaschir  or  jafar-ifwm&ii — a  medicine  which  "in  out- 
ward form/*  says  Ritter,  "greatly  resembles  sugar,  but  which  in 
intrinsic  qualities  is  very  different."*  The  Europeans,  however, 
failed  to  realize  that  the  sweet  substance  which  the  Indians  were 
said  to  find  in  reeds  and  to  use  as  their  saccharine,  and  this  white 
concretion,  which  was  also  described  to  them  as  being  found  in 
reeds,  and  with  which  they  themselves  became  familiar  as  it  was 
brought  to  them  by  travelers  and  in  trade,  were  not  one  and  the 
same  thing;  and,  accordingly,  in  all  their  writings  on  the  subject 
they  fail  to  make  any  distinction  between  them,  and  refer  con- 
stantly to  this  latter  substance  as  to  the  true  sugar,  which  they 
also  declare  to  have  been  used  only  as  a  medicine. 

This  fact  has  made  the  study  of  the  real  sugar  cane  in  its  earliest 
phases  most  difficult,  for  most  of  the  earlier  compilers  of  its 
history  accepted  without  a  doubt  all  these  classical  references  as 
allusions  to  sugar  and  drew  their  conclusions  accordingly.  About 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  however,  some  more  exact  work 
began  to  be  done  on  the  subject,  and  the  result  has  been  a  gradual 
clearing  up  of  the  question.  In  1796  one  W.  Falconer,  M.D., 
published  a  "Sketch  of  the  History  of  Sugar  in  Early  Times  and 
through  the  Middle  Ages,"  in  which  he  brings  forth  the  hypothesis 
that  those  Greek  and  Roman  writers  who  had  long  been  supposed 
to  have  known  the  true  sugar  cane,  either  directly  or  by  report, 
had  in  reality  been  unconsciously  writing  of  an  entirely  different 
substance,  whch  Falconer  identified  with  the  tabaschir,  an  Indian 
medicine  later  widely  known.  Alexander  von  Humboldt,  in  his 
"dc  Distributione  Geographica  Plantarum,"  strengthened  this 
assertion  of  Falconer  by  declaring  that  the  so-called  "sugar  of 
the  ancients"  was,  in  very  great  measure  at  least,  not  the  sugar 
of  the  sugar  cane,  but  the  sacw-nmrnbu  or  tabaschir  of  the  Indians 
and  Arabians.  Karl  Ritter,  in  taking  his  final  position  on  this 
subject,  allied  himself  with  these  two  eminent  scholars  and  with 
Kurt  Sprengle  and  Salmasius,  who  after  careful  research  arrived 
at  the  same  conclusion,  and  declared  without  hesitation  that  among 

•  Ritter,  1.  c,  p.  309. 


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SUGAR  IN    ASIA. 


37 


the  "ancients"  the  sweet  substance  most  generally  mentioned— and 
almost  invariably  as  a  medicine— was  the  above-mentioned  sacar 
mambu  or  tabaschir."^  Since,  also,  it  is  extremely  probable  that 
it  was  this  substance,  and  not  the  sugar  proper  that  Pliny  and 
Dioscorides  and  other  classical  authors  allude  to  when  they  claim 
to  have  seen  that  of  which  they  write,  it  seems  conclusively  to 
be  proved  that  in  those  early  times  sugar  itself  had  not  penetrated 
to  the  country  west  of  the  Indus,  but  remained  still  confined  to 
the  peninsula  of  India.  ^  

Although  sugar  was  so  generally  cultivated  and  used  in  this, 
its  original  home,  the  form  in  which  it  was  consumed  was  very 
different  from  the  crystallized  sugar  of  to-day.  It  was  used,  rather, 
as  a  liquid,  "roh   oder   ds   Honig,   Rauschtrank   Molasse    oder 
Syrup  ""^  the  Indians  at  that  time  having  very  little  idea  of  the 
possibility  of  treating  the  juice  in  any  other  way.     Evidently, 
however,  sugar  in  this  form  could  never  be  used  beyond  the  area 
of  its  cultivation,  since  these  raw  or  half-cooked  concoctions  were 
suited  neither  to  transportation  without  great  difficulty,  nor  to     j 
preservation  without  great  danger  of  fermenting.    At  this  stage,    I 
therefore,  the  extension  of  its  cultivation  was  the  essential  condi-  ^ 
tion  of  the  extension  of  its  use.  , 

It  is  in  the  fifth  century  A.  D.  that  the  first  evidence  appears 
that  the  cultivation  of  the  cane  had  emerged  from  its  primitive 
habitat.  The  new  environment  in  which  it  is  found  at  this  time 
is  in  the  Tigris  Valley  in  the  neighborhood  of  Jondisapur,  a  city 
of  great  importance  under  Persian  rule,  and  in  the  period  from 
the  fifth  until  the  eleventh  century  a  great  center    of    culture 

•Dr.  Benjamin  Moseley,  in  his  essay  on  Sugar,  written  in  1799.  takes 
sides  unconditionally  with  those  who  believed  that  all  classical  allusions 
to  Saccharum  or  Saccharon  refer  absolutely  to  the  sugar  of  the  cane. 
This  is,  of  course,  the  more  natural  since  his  purpose  .in  writing  the  essay 
was  to  put  forth  in  strongest  terms  the  medicinal  quahties  of  sugar.  His 
proofs,  however— when  he  adduces  such— are  in  no  way  convincing  or 
adequate,  and  he  must  be  classed  among  those  of  tht?  older  school  wh<v 
without  sufficient  research,  relied  unquestioningly  on  the  outward  forms 
of  words  for  their  decision  as  to  the  knowledge  of  the  "ancients"  of  the 
sugar  cane. 

"Ritter,  1.  c,  p.  310. 


I 


SUGAR  IN   ASIA. 


39 


SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


and  civilizatioii.  It  is  the  great  blossoming  of  science  and  art  in 
Jondisapur  at  this  time  that  Ritter  makes  responsible  for  the 
presence  of  the  sugar  cane  there.  He  believes  that  the  Arabian 
physicians  resident  in  Jondisapur  introduced  the  sugar  cane  for 
the  purpose  of  studying  its  medicinal  qualities,  as  a  result  of 
which  investigation  they  gave  it  later  a  most  prominent  place 
in  their  pharmacopoeia^  Ritter  puts  forth  also  the  hypothesis  that 
sugar  was  not  transplanted  immediately  from  India  to  Jondisapur, 
but  that  it  found  its  way  there  by  way  of  Siraf,  a  city  situated  at 
the  head  of  the  Persian  Gulf.  In  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries 
Siraf  was  a  great  commercial  center,  and  the  records  of  those 
later  times  seem  vaguely  to  refer  to  the  cultivation  of  sugar 
within  its  boundaries  at  a  much  earlier  date.  These  uncertain 
allusions  have  been  taken  by  Ritter  as  the  basis  for  what  he 
regards  as  the  very  probable  but  in  nowise  certain  theory  that 

'"Mag  die  aus  Dioskorides  und  Gaknus  nach  Obigem  nun  so  allgemein 
bekannte  Anpreisung  des  kostbaren  mit  Silber  aufgewogenen  Medicamentes 
.  .  .  Oder  des  Zuckersaftes  selbst  bci  den  griechischen  Arzten  der 
hippokratischen  Schule  in  Jondisapur  die  erste  Veranlassung  zur 
Anpflanzung  von  Rohrarten  und  insbesondere  des  Zuckerrohrs  in  den 
dortigen  vielleicht  zum  Behuf  der  Pharmakopoe  angelegten  botanischen 
Garten  gegeben  haben— wir  wissen  cs  nicht — ^iinden  aber,  seltsam  genug, 
bei  der  beriihnitesten  medicinischen  Akademie  im  Orient,  welche  wie  wir 
aahen  durcli  Obertragung  griechischer  Kenntniss  bei  Persern,  und  Arabern 
tinier  dem  Einfluss  nestorianischer  Christen  machtig  emporbliihte  schon 
im  Anfange  des  V.  Jahrhunderts,  die  erste  Nennung  der  kostlichsten 
Zuckerrohrpflanzungen.  Dass  Jondisapur  ebenso  wie  das  gleichzeitige 
benachbarte  Ahwaz  unter  Sassaniden  und  spater  unter  abassidischen 
Khalifen  in  alien  Zweigen  damaliger  Disciplin,  in  Philosophic,  Arithmetik, 
Dialectik,  Musik,  Geometric,  Astronomic,  Astrologie,  vorziiglich  aber  in 
den  medicinischen  den  grossten  Ruhm  im  Orient  genossen,  dass  viele 
der  Leibarzte  der  Abassiden  in  Bagdad,  (der  erste  bekannt  gewordene  ist 
Georg  Eben  Balhtishua,  cin  Christ,  Director  des  Krankenhauses  in 
Jondisapur  unter  Khalif  al  Mansur  im  Jahre  754)  eben  von  dicsen  beiden 
Stadten  aus  in  die  neue  Residenz  berufen  worden,  dass  von  ihnen  die 
Bearbeitung  der  Medicamente  und  Pharmakopden  durch  die  Fortschritte 
der  Alchemic  und  Chemic  ausging;  davon  liegen  die  Beweise  schon  vor 
in  dem  was  wir  an  einem  anderen  Orte  (Allgem.  Erdk.,  B.,  IX,  S.  171- 
175)  iiber  die  Geschichte  bcider  Stadte  Jondisapur  und  Ahwaz,  iiber  ihren 
Reichtum,  ihre  Gelehrten  .  .  .  und  iiber  ihren  Ruhm  angefiihrt  haben." 
—Ritter,  1.  c,  pp.  374,  375- 


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Siraf  was  the  stepping-stone  over  which  sugar  reached  Jondisapur 

and  Ahwaz.  j-^.    * 

It  is  to  these  two  cities  that  Ritter  ascribed  also  the  credit  of 
the  invention  of  the  refining  of  sugar,  in  so  far  as  that  art  was 
practiced  in  Asia.    He  believes  that  the  advance  of  the  medical 
science  among  the  Arabian  physicians  gathered  at  Jondisapur 
must  constantly  have  been  attended  by  the  demand  for  always 
purer  and  more  convenient  forms  of  medicines  and  drugs,  and 
that  this  demand,  together  with    that    progress    in    chemistry 
which  is  always  found  hand  in  hand  with  that  in  medicine,  led 
naturally  to  the  refining  of  the  juice  of  the  sugar  cane.    He  places 
the  date  of  this  invention  somewhere  in  the  early  years  of  the 
tenth  century,   since  very   soon   after  that  time   sugar   in   the 
modern  sense  finds  a  definite  place  in  the  books  of  various  Ara- 
bian physicians,  such  as  Ali  Rhazi,  Ali  Abbas,    Avicenna   and 
others.    All  of  these  investigations  and  methods  of  proof  of  the 
various  hypotheses  have,  it  is  evident,  been  pursued  exclusively  on 
internal  evidence.    It  is  interesting,  therefore,  at  this  point  to  note 
that  that  which  originally  inspired  Ritter's  work,  namely,  the 
discoverv  at  Ahwaz  of  great  millstones    and    other    apparatus 
which  he  at  the  outset  of  his  research  believed  to  have  been  used 
there  in  the  refining  of  sugar,  here  comes  in  as  the  one  piece  of 
external  evidence  necessary  to  establish  his  theory.    Archaeology 
and  topography  thus  unite  with  history  and  literature  in  testi- 
mony to  the  fact  that  sugar  was  both  grown  and  refined  in  the 
valley  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  as  early  as  the  tenth  century, 
when  the  Caliphate  of  the  Abbasides  was  in  its  glory  there. 


,PM  A  PTTfW    Iff 

Sugar  around  the  Mediterranean  Sea. 

To  the  Mohammedaiis  also  belongs  the  glory  of  having  given 
the  sugar  cane  to  the  western   world.     In   their  conquests  and 
wanderings  out  from  their  Asiatic  home,  they  carried  the  cane 
with  them  and  planted  it  along  the  line  of  their  march  wherever 
conditions  were  favorable.    The  result  was  a  series  of  plantations 
about  the  Mediterranean  Sea  which  testified  to  the  presence  of 
the  Mohammedan  conqueror.    The  principal  areas  of  cultivation 
on  this  westward  journey  of  the  cane    were    in    southwestern 
Asia,  in  Egypt,  in  the  islands  of  the  Mediterranean,  chiefly  in 
Sicily,     in     the     northwestern     part     of     Africa     along     the 
Atlantic  seaboard,  and  in  southern  Spain.    The  exact  chronology 
of  this  transplanting  of  the  sugar  cane  has  never   been    deter- 
mined with  certainty.    That,  however,  it  was  transmitted  from 
place  to  place  by  the  Arabs  during  the  era  of  their  supremacy 
and  conquest  is  established  beyond  a  doubt.    Only  in  the  case  of 
Egypt  is  it  believed  that  the  introduction  of  the  cane  was  not 
due  to  Arab  invasion.    In  this  instance  evidence  points  rather  to 
the  fact  that  sugar  cane  was  first  brought  to  the  upper  valley  of 
the  Nile  by  the  Copts  in  their  commercial  intercourse  either  with 
India  direct,  or  with  the  peoples  at  the  head  of  the  Persian  Gulf ; 
and  that  once  established  in  this  neighborhood  it  was  handed  on 
along  the  Nile  in  a  northerly  direction  nearer  and  nearer  to  its 
mouth.    Recent  research  has  firmly  established  the  fact  that  this 
early  trade  route  from  southern  Asia  to  these  parts  of  Africa 
did  exist,  and  this  theory  of  Ritter,  which  he  bases  upon  literary 
and  historical  evidence,  as  well  as  upon  conditions  in  Egypt  itself, 
adds  one  more  argument  in  its  favor.    The  Arabians,  it  should  be 
remembered,  entered  Egypt  from  the  north,  and  if  they  had  in- 
troduced the  cane  its  culture  must  naturally  have  spread  from 
the  mouth  of  the  Nile  southward,  which  is  quite  contrary  to 

(40) 


P 


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,  ( 


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SUGAR  AROUND   THE    MEDITERRANEAN    SEA. 


41 


the  probabilities  of  the  case  as  these  are  understood  in  the  light 
of  latest  research. 

The  cultivation  of  the  cane  in  southwestern  Asia,  that  is,  in 
Syria  and  Palestine,  must  have  been  introduced  there  by  the 
Arabs  at  some  time  between  the  seventh  century,  when  they  took 
possession  of  this  country,  and  the  time  of  the  Crusades.  The 
crusaders  found  the  cane  growing  in  Palestine,  and  brought  back 
to  Europe  glowing  reports  of  this  wonderful  reed  which  had 
so  refreshed  them  in  times  of  great  hunger  and  weariness.  From 
Palestine  the  Arabs  apparently  carried  the  cane  out  over  the 
islands  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  In  Cyprus,  Rhodes,  Malta 
and  Morea  flourishing  plantations  were  established,  and  also  in 
Sicily.  Sicily,  indeed,  seems  to  have  been  the  first  place  outside 
of  Asia  where  the  sugar  cane  was  grown.  There  are  records 
which  prove  that  it  was  taken  there  and  cultivated  by  the  Ara- 
bians certainly  in  the  tenth  century,  and  possibly  in  the  ninth. 
It  has  been  suggested  that  sugar  was  introduced  into  Sicily  from 
Egypt,  but  the  evidence  for  this  is  not  very  strong,  and  the 
exact  means  of  the  transmission  of  the  cane  to  Sicily  must 
remain  for  the  present,  at  least,  undecided.  The  culture  of  the 
cane  in  this  island  became  a  most  important  and  profitable  pur- 
suit, and  sugar  yielded  large  incomes  to  the  Government  for 
many  centuries.  So  famous  indeed  had  Sicilian  sugar  become  in 
the  fifteenth  century  that  the  ruler  of  Portugal,  when  he  desired 
specimens  of  the  cane  to  plant  in  the  Madeira  Islands,  turned 
to  Sicily  as  the  land  from  which  the  best  cuttings  could  be  pro- 
cured. Sugar  was  carried  by  the  Mohammedans,  also,  across 
Africa  to  its  northwestern  coast.  In  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries  there  are  references  to  sugar  plantations  in  this  neigh- 
borhood. Sus  al  Aksa,  in  the  Morocco  of  to-day,  and  Ceuta, 
on  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  are  mentioned  as  centers  of  its  growth. 
The  actual  way  in  which  sugar  entered  Spain  has  never  been 
determined,  so  many  possibilities  exist,  and  so  little  certain  knowl- 
edge of  the  subject.  It  may  have  been  carried  there  from  Sicily, 
or  from  the  immediately  opposite  African  shore.  In  the  twelfth 
century  allusion  is  made  to  it  as  growing  in  the  neighborhood  of 


T^" 


I 


SUGAR  AS  A   COMMODITY. 


Seville,  which  lay.  it  should  be  noted,  very  conveniently  near 
Ceuta  OH  tlie  African  coast.  There  is  not  in  these  earlier  days  any 
evidence  to  show  that  sugar  was  extensively  cultivated  in  Spain. 
That,  however,  the  use  of  this  commodity  was  establishing  itself 
in  this  peninsula  during  those  and  succeeding  centuries  is  amply 
proved  by  the  persistency  with  which  the  Portuguese  and  Spanish, 
in  the  absence  of  plantations  on  their  own  native  soil,  still  pro- 
cured sources  of  supply  in  the  world  to  the  west  of  them. 

The  production  of  values  by  exchange  in  sugar  and  by  the 
reining  process  began  in  this  period,  also,  to  assume  considerable 
proportions.  From  each  of  these  areas  of  cultivation  around  the 
Mediterranean  Sea  there  was.  so  to  speak,  a  secondarj-  migra- 
tion, not  of  the  cane  itself,  but  of  its  product,  sugar,  which  was 
distributed  from  these  centers  by  traders  who  carried  it  over  the 
surrounding  countries  where  the  cane  itself  was  not  grown.  The 
early  commercial  activity  of  the  Venetians  in  the  Mediterranean 
Sea  soon  adopted  sugar  as  one  of  the  chief  commodities  in 
exchange.  Dr.  Benjamin  Moseley  d^lares  that  even  prior  to 
991,  "the  Venetians,  then  forcing  their  commerce  with  the  Sara- 
cens into  Syria  and  Egypt,  brought  back not  only  rice, 

dates,  fena,  cassia,  flax,  etc.,  but  also  sugar."^  In  another  place 
in  his  essay  he  says,  "The  Venetians,  anterior  to  the  year  1148, 
imported  considerable  quantities  of  sugar  from  India  by  the  Red 
Sea,  and  also  from  Egypt.  Sugar  was  likewise  made  before  then 
in  the  island  of  Sicily.  With  the  produce  of  this  island  and  the 
sugar  imported  from  India  and  Egypt  the  Venetians  carried  on 
a  great  traffic  and  supplied  all  the  markets  of  Europe  with  this 
commodity."*  * 

*  Moseley,  I.  c,  p.  71. 

•  Moseley,  1.  c,  p.  71. 

■This  statement  of  Moseley's  evidently  rests  for  support  on  an  entry 
in  Anderson's  "Treatise  on  Commerce,"  for  the  year  1148.  It  reads  as 
follows:  "Several  authors  agree  that  about  this  time  there  were  very 
considerable  quantities  of  sugar  produced  in  the  Island  of  Sicily,  with 
which  the  Venetians  traded  to  the  ports  in  the  Indian  Ocean  as  well  as 
with  the  sugars  of  Egypt  and  what  was  brought  thither  from  the  Red  Sea." 
Although  in  the  commerce  of  Venice  sugar  in  those  years  played  so 


M'^il 


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I 


SUGAR  AROUND  THE   MEDITERRANEAN   SEA. 


43 


It  was  in  Venice  also,  the  seat  of  the  sugar  trade,  that  the  art 
of  refining  sugar  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word  was  discov- 
ered. The  close  and  necessary  interrelation  that  exists  between 
the  refining  of  sugar  and  its  extensive  appearance  as  an  article 
of  trade,  is  by  this  very  fact  strongly  emphasized.  It  is  to  appear 
again,  in  a  succeeding  century,  when  Antwerp  becomes  at  once 
the  center  of  the  refining  industry  and  of  commerce  in  sugar,  and 
is  to  find  its  greatest  example  at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  when  the  great  powers  of  western  Europe  become  at 
one  and  the  same  time  the  cultivators  of  the  cane  and  the  refiners 
and  exchangers  of  its  product.  In  the  earlier  days,  however, 
these  jurisdictions  in  the  production  of  values  were  in  great 
measure  separate,  and  while  some  countries  planted  and  watered, 
it  was  left  to  the  rising  city  of  Venice  to  bring  forth  the  final 
increase  by  her  industry  and  trade.  The  refining  of  sugar  is 
absolutely  essential,  as  remarked  above,  if  this  commodity  is  to 
become  a  staple  article  of  trade.  Only  in  a  refined  or  more  or  less 
crystallized  form  can  sugar  be  preserved  for  any  length  of  time, 
or  transported  with  facility.  Ritter  has  even  gone  so  far  as  to 
point  out  the  counterinfluence  which  the  refining  of  sugar  had 
upon  the  cultivation  of  the  cane.  He  shows  that  refined  sugar 
was  accessible  through  the  channels  of  commerce  to  all  the  outly- 
ing districts  of  the  earth,  and  that  this  accessibility  naturally 
created  a  demand  for  the  commodity  which  could  be  met  only  by 
increasing  the  areas  of  cultivation  of  the  sugar  cane. 

important  a  role,  we  have  no  reason  to  believe  that  it  was  then  used  at  all 
generally  among  the  people  of  Italy  itself.  The  climate  of  Italy  was  tpo 
cold  for  the  successful  cultivation  of  the  sugar  cane,  and  for  some  reason 
the  Italians  do  not  seem  to  have  demanded  the  product  from  the  surround- 
ing warmer  countries — at  least  not  until  the  age  of  the  holy  wars,  when  the 
crusaders  returned  from  Palestine  with  their  wonderful  accounts  of  the 
sweet-tasting  reed  which  they  had  found  growing  there.  This  is  further 
attested  to  by  Ritter,  who  says:  "In  Italien  mag  der  Zucker  durch 
einzelne  Handelsleute  der  Amalfitaner,  Venetianer  u.  A.  schon  lange  vor 
den  Kreuzziigen  eingefiihrt  worden  sein,  aber  die  Kreuzfahrer  verbreiteten 
erst  allgemein  den  Geschmack  und  Gebrauch  dieses  Aromas  das  seitdem 
aus  dem  Medicament  zum  Gegenstande  eines  Luxus  des  taglichen  Lebens 
wurde  durch  das  ganze  Abendland." — Ritter,  1.  c,  p.  401. 


] 


I ¥ 


SUGAR   AS   A   COMMODITY. 


le  1470  a  Venetian  discovered  the  art  of  refining  the  juice  of 
the  sugar  cane,  and  received  one  hundred  thousand  crowns  for 
his  invention,  a  fact  which  in  itself  suggests  very  strongly  what 
must  have  been  the  importance  already  attached  to  sugar  as  an 
economic  good.     Up  to  this  time  the  sugar  in  use  about  the 
Mediterranean  had  been    imperfectly  refined,  and  was  probably 
cruder,  even,  than  that  which  had  been  formerly  made  at  Jon- 
disapur.    By  this  discovery  at  Venice,  however,  large  clear  crys- 
tals of  sugar  candy  were  made,  and  later  by  the  application  of 
constantly  improving  means  and  methods  of  production  the  Vene- 
tian sugar  refiners  succeeded  in  oifering  to  the  world  the  far- 
famed  "pains  de  Venise."    These  were,  as  is  well  known,  in  the 
shape  of  cones  and  loaves,  and  were  so  far  superior  to  anything 
that  had  been  produced  before  that  the  demand  for  them  spread 
with  great  rapidity  over  the  surrounding  European  countries. 

It  was  not  only,  however,  in  the  realm  of  production  that  his- 
tory was  making  itself  in  this  period  with  regard  to  the  sugar 
cane.    In  the  consumption  of  this  good,  also,  great  changes  were 
taking  place.     It  was  during  this    era    of    the    Mohammedan 
supremacy,  namely,  that  sugar  ceased  being  used  merely  as  a 
medicine  and  began  to  be  consumed  as  an  article  of  food.    Cir- 
cumstances as  they  existed  among  the  Mohammedans  all  com- 
bined to  make  this  transition  almost  a  necessary  one.    As  a  med- 
icine sugar  was  naturally  very  expensive.     It  was  at  first,  most 
probably,  produced  outside  of  India  only  in  botanical  gardens,  as 
at  Jondisapur,  and  at  great  expenditure  of  energy  and  trouble. 
The  ordinary  difficulties  attendant  upon  the  cultivation  of  the 
sugar  cane  are  at  all  times  greater  than  those  incurred  in  raising 
almost  any  other  agricultural  product,  and,  as  already  shown,  the 
smaller  the  scale  at  which  sugar  is  produced  the  greater  is  the  rel- 
ative expense.     It  was  therefore  only  as  a  medicine  that  sugar 
could  first  have  found  a  place  among  the  utilities  of  a  people  out- 
side of  India,  its  original  home,  where  conditions  were  so  pre- 
eminently suited  to  its  production,  and  where,  from  time  imme- 
morial, apparently,  it  had  been  an  established  food  of  the  people. 
Its  adoption  as  a  food  among  any  people  who  were  not  accustomed 


( 


m  • 


•t'- 


7    *  * 


SUGAR  AROUND  THE   MEDITERRANEAN   SEA. 


45 


to  it  must  of  necessity  have  been  very  gradual,  since  the  cost  of 
production  was  comparatively  so  great  in  the  first  stages  of  its 
cultivation  that  it  must  have  been  reserved  for  those  demands 
whose  utilities  were  very  high.  Medicine  is  by  its  peculiar  nature 
always  rated  at  a  very  high  utility,  since  often  even  life  itself  is 
dependent  on  its  consumption,  while  the  very  small  quantities 
in  which  it  is  consumed  make  it  possible  that  a  very  high  price 
can  be  paid  for  it.  The  desirableness  of  sugar  as  an  article  of  food 
must  have  become  evident  as  soon  as  it  was  consumed  in  any 
capacity,  for  its  sweetness  was  calculated  to  satisfy  a  fundamental 
want  of  man's  sensory  nature.  It  is  therefore  evident  that  only 
the  stimulus  of  objective  forces  and  conditions  were  necessary  to 
insure  the  expansion  of  its  consumption,  and  these  forces  and 
conditions  were,  as  it  happened,  present  among  the  Moham- 
medans, in  the  form  of  great  stores  of  wealth  which  enabled  them 
to  pay  the  necessary  price  for  this  article  of  luxury. 


I 


CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Discovery  of  America. 

The  introduction  of  sugar  into  Spain  was  the  stepping-stone 
over  which  the  cultivation  of  the  cane  came  into  contact  with 
the  civilization  of  western  Europe.  For,  although  the  Moors 
were  at  that  time  dominant  in  the  Spanish  Penmsula,  their 
supremacy  was  shortly  to  fall  before  the  rising  powers  of  the 
West  and  the  Mohammedans  at  their  expulsion  from  Spam  were 
to  leave  behind  them,  among  thdr  other  rich  gifts  to  modem 
civilization,  the  cane  fields  of  Granada  and  Andalusia.  The  sig- 
nificance of  this  cane  culture  in  Spain,  carried  there  m  mediaeval 
times,  was  not  to  be  realized,  however,  until  the  modern  era  set 
in  ■  for  it  was  in  this  latter  age  that  sugar  attained  its  fullest  im- 
portance as  an  economic  good.  The  fact,  therefore  of  its  pres- 
ence in  Spain  where  these  two  eras  came  together,  where  the  last 
and  greatest  people  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  brought  face  to  face 
with  the  first  great  state  of  western  Europe-this  fact,  to  repeat 
contains  in  it  all  the  possibilities  which  appeared  m  their  full 
fruition  in  the  subsequent  history  of  sugar. 

As  the  Christian  states  grew  stronger  in  Spain,  events  shaped 
themselves  rapidly  which  were  to  lead  naturally  to  the  demand  on 
the  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  country  for  the  product  of  the 
cane.  With  the  growth  of  their  prosperity  the  demand  for  the 
pleasures  of  the  senses  was  increasing  rapidly,  and  men  were 
striving  instinctively  to  find  means  to  satisfy  this  demand.  1  rade 
with  the  East  had  brought  the  knowledge  of  Oriental  luxuries  to 
the  Europeans,  to  whom  these  articles  now  appeared  as  essential 
to  comfortable  well-being.  In  close  touch  with  this  "consumers 
desire  for  the  luxuries  of  the  East  there  was  on  the  production 
side  a  complementary  demand  equally  great.  The  many  traders 
of  the  day,  and  those  e --gaged  in  adventures  and  enterprise,  saw 

(46) 


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THE  DISCOVERY   OE  AMERICA. 


47 


in  this  commerce  with  the  East  a  way  to  increase  their  treasure 
and  so  to  procure  great  prestige  and  distinction.  And,  finally, 
overtopping  and  completing  all,  there  were  the  governments  of  the 
E)uropean  states,  just  beginning  to  take  on  a  semblance  of  nation- 
ality, who  were  eager  as  were  their  individual  citizens  to  obtain 
power  and  position  among  their  neighbors  through  the  great 
wealth  which  foreign  commerce  would  bring.  Thus  the  desire  for 
national  prestige  and  the  individual  desire  for  social  prestige  and 
sensory  satisfaction  stood  side  by  side  as  the  great  motive  forces 
which  were  to  lead  these  adventurous  seamen  toward  the  Western 
World. 

The  growth  of  wealth  in  the  countries  of  western  Europe 
during  the  latter  Middle  Ages  had,  as  already  stated,  led  to  a 
"vast  increase"  of  the  trade  with  India.  The  travelers  who  in 
the  thirteenth  century  had  gone  to  Asia  brought  back  with  them 
marvelous  tales  of  the  world-old  civilizations  there.  Coloring  these 
narratives  with  the  pictures  of  their  own  excited  imaginations 
they  succeeded  in  stirring  those  who  heard  or  read  of  them  to 
attempt  to  procure  for  themselves  some  of  the  fabled  eastern 
treasures.  In  the  fourteenth  century  the  Venetian  and  Genoese 
traders  were  moved  to  attempt  explorations  in  the  East,  and  in 
the  fifteenth  century,  when  the  mercantile  classes  had  begun  to 
accumulate  their  wealth,  more  and  more  interest  centered  in 
these  eastern  stores,  and  the  eastern  trade  assumed  even  larger 
proportions.  This  trade  had  already  grown  considerably,  not- 
withstanding the  many  disadvantages  that  it  was  compelled  to 
encounter.  It  was  in  fact  these  very  disadvantages  that  led  later 
to  the  discovery  of  America,  in  this  way :  by  making  it  necessary 
for  the  nations  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard  of  Europe  to  attempt  to 
open  up  a  new  trade  route  which  should  be  unhampered  by  the 
obstructions  that  lay  along  the  old  road  between  Europe  and  the 
East. 

Communication  with  India  and  the  far-famed  "Cathay"  was 
hampered  in  so  far  as  all  Europe  was  concerned  by  the  fact  that 
the  Mohammedans  had  taken  possession  of  all  the  lands  through 
which  the  trade  routes  lay,  and  demanded  exorbitant  tolls  and 


( 


\ 


48 


SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


Other  charges,  thus  diverting  the  profits  that  might  otherwise 
have  accrued  to  the  Venetian  and  Genoese  merchants.  "To  carry 
this  trade,  therefore,  direct  to  India,"  says  Payne,  "became  the 
dream  of  the  age."^ 

The  maritime  states  of  western  Europe,  which  were  then  begin- 
ning to  attain  to  some  sort  of  political  as  well  as  economic  power, 
also  suffered  an  extra  disadvantage  from  the  old  trade  routes! 
The  Mediterranean  traders,  possessing  as  they  did  a  practical 
monopoly,  furnished  eastern  goods  to  these  western  customers 
only  at  prices  high  enough  to  cover  all  the  Mohammedan  charges, 
and  also  an  extra  profit  for  themselves.  Both  these  causes  com- 
bined, I.  e,,  the  Mohammedan  occupation  of  the  commercial  cen^ 
ters,  and  the  Italian  monopoly  of  the  Mediterranean  trade,  to 
bring  the  balance  of  trade  in  favor  of  the  East.  Payne  says,  apro^ 
pos  of  this : 

"Beside  the  valuable  exports  of  Europe,  such  as  iron,  copper,  quicksilver, 
timber,  slaves  and  corn,  the  ships  of  Venice  alone  brought  yearly  three 
hundred  thousand  ducats  in  coin  to  Alexandria.    This  is  but  one  instance 
of  an  extensive  process,  and  from  it  we  may  gather  some  idea  of  the 
extent  of  this  drain  of  bullion  from  the  west  to  the  east.     Such  a  drain 
the  scanty  mines  of  silver  in  Europe  were  totally  unable  to  support     The 
growth  of  the  Indian  trade  thus  naturally  led  to  a  serious  and  perplexing 
dearth  of  the  precious  metals.     In  the  fifteenth  century  the  purchasing 
power  of  gold  and  silver  in  Europe  was  double  the  same  power  in  the 
century  preceding,  and  the  produce  of  Europe  was  universally  depreciated 
m  a  corresponding  degree.     Some  direct  communication,  if  possible    of 
Europe  with  the  East,  leading  to  a  readjustment  of  this  disturbed  balance, 
thus  became  an  economic  necessity.'" 

While  Europe  was  thus  looking  to  the  fabled  East  as  to  the 
source  of  gold  and  pearls,  and  of  spices  and  rich  silks— that  is 
translated  into  economic  terms,  of  wealth  and  distinction,  and  of 
luxury  in  food  and  dress,  another  market  nearer  home  was 
opened  up  to  her  people,  which  oflfered  them  opportunities  for 
satisfymg  in  new  and  unexpected  ways  many  of  their  old  desires. 
This  was  the  western  coast  of  Africa,  that  Portuguese  enterprise 

'  Payne,  "History  of  the  New  World,  called  America,"  1892,  I,  p.  54. 

'^ — e,  1.  c,  I,  p.  71. 


I 


I 


\j|**'  Jill 
f 


« 
r 


t  ,1 

ll 


■w    j. 


JM|'  JI         .111!' 

Ill 


'•4|  «■' 


THE  DISCOVERY   OF  AMERICA, 


49 


had  revealed  to  Europe  as  a  great  trading  station  for  gold  dust 
and  slaves.  From  these  fields  great  stores  of  riches  could  be 
procured  and  great  numbers  of  Africans  could  be  brought  and 
sold  into  slavery,  thus  to  make  the  lives  of  the  w^ealthy,  leisure 
and  luxury-loving  inhabitants  of  the  Iberian  Peninsula  still  more 
luxurious  by  their  constant  service  and  attendance.  Nor  were 
the  social  wants  left  ungratified,  for  a  large  retinue  of  such 
creatures  invariably  procured  great  social  prestige  to  their  owner 
or  proprietor.  The  Portuguese  ruler  himself  sent  many  slaving 
expeditions  to  the  coast  of  Africa,  where  the  Mohammedans  had 
long  been  engaging  in  the  traffic,  and  demanded  one-fifth  of  the 
returns  from  all  the  private  ventures.  *'The  impulse  which  grew 
from  the  hope  of  gain,"  says  Payne,  **was  diffused  through  all 
ranks  of  society,  from  the  sovereign  at  home  to  the  needy  adven- 
turer who  risked  his  life  among  savages  on  a  barbarous  shore."* 

These  ages  of  unrest  led  naturally  to  the  voyages  across  the 
Atlantic,  and  so  to  the  discovery  of  America,  their  inevitable  out- 
come. Linked  with  the  economic  phases  as  outlined  above,  the 
intellectual  uneasiness  and  curiosity  and  the  religious  enthusiasm 
of  that  time  were  quick  to  respond  to  those  other  forces  which 
were  leading  men  on  in  the  search  for  satisfaction,  both  social 
and  sensory.  All  the  institutions  of  that  day  were  brought  into 
line  with  this  dominant  tendency.  Slavery  itself  was  condoned 
by  the  Pope  under  the  claim  that  it  was  to  the  advantage  of  the 
wretched  Indians  to  be  brought  from  the  paganism  and  savagery 
in  which  they  had  been  born,  and  to  be  put  under  Christianizing 
and  civilizing  influences. 

The  lands  in  America  that  the  Spaniards  discovered  in  their 
search  for  India  were,  naturally,  called  upon  by  the  European 
nations  to  serve  as  a  substitute  for  the  eastern  countries  they 
had  hoped  to  find.  Where  powers  of  substitution  failed,  more- 
over, they  were  forced  to  furnish,  in  ways  peculiar  to  themselves, 
gratifications  for  the  desires  of  these  w©stem  peoples.  In  looking 
to  the  East,  Europe  had  expected  to  find  gold  and  pearls  as  the 
chief  forms  of  treasure,  and,  in  addition  to  these,  all  those  costly 

■  Payne,  1.  c,  I,  p.  99. 
4 


4 


Ill 

I 

I 


50 


SUGAR  AS   A   COMMODITY. 


Oriental  products  both  of  nature  and  of  art  which  were  fitted  to 
delight  the  pampered  taste  of  her  people.  Of  all  of  this  list,  the 
only  article  which  they  actually  found  in  America  was  gold,  and 
even  this  they  did  not  discover  in  the  form  which  they  were  seek- 
ing. They  had  expected  to  find  it  in  the  shape  of  rich  ornaments 
and  vessels,  such  as  befitted  the  Hindu  civilization,  and  instead 
of  this  they  came  upon  it  only  as  a  dust  in  the  sands  of  the  river 
beds,  from  which  it  had  to  be  extracted  by  great  toil  and  suffering 
of  a  subject  people.  Gold,  however,  inasmuch  as  it  is  the  symbol 
of  wealth,  is  always  the  source  of  prestige  and  power,  and  the 
form  in  which  it  may  exist  influences  but  little  its  real  significance. 
The  Spaniards,  therefore,  were  not  disappointed  in  so  far  as  gold 
rewarded  their  explorations  in  America. 

Beyond  this  treasure  this  primeval  country  offered  none  of 
those  things  that  her  discoverers  expected  to  find.  India,  "the 
rich  and  populous  fairyland,"  "full  of  everything  that  man's  heart 
could  desire,"  with  her  "wealth  and  luxury  and  splendor,"  and 
Cathay,  with  her  "rich  and  vast  cities  and  numerous  and  civilized 
people,"  had  proved  for  them  but  the  figment  of  a  dream,  and 
instead  of  all  the  rich  civilization  of  the  East,  they  found  them- 
selves face  to  face  with  only  "forest-clad  islands  .  .  . 
sparsely  occupied  by  an  utterly  savage  race"  whose  whole  wealth 
consisted,  beside  their  daily  bread,  only  in  a  few  cotton  cloths  and 
baubles.  Such  were  the  actual  utilities  of  these  people;  but  in 
their  land  there  lay  for  the  Spaniards  great  stores  of  potential 
utilities,  according  to  their  various  desires,  and  the  only  course 
open  to  them,  in  the  failure  of  the  finished  goods  which  they  had 
fondly  hoped  to  find,  was  to  apply  themselves  to  a  converting  of 
these  potential  utilities  into  actual  utilities.  In  the  case  of 
Spain,  indeed,  this  process  was  never  so  systematically  carried  on 
as  it  was  later  under  England,  for  the  Spaniards  were  always  too 
eager  for  the  golden  treasure  of  their  lands  to  apply  themselves  to 
a  more  careful  scheme  of  cuhivation.  To  a  degree,  however, 
they  did  put  them  under  agriculture,  and  it  is  indicative  of  the 
extent  to  which  the  Spaniards  craved  sugar  that  this  was  one  of 
the  first    things    cultivated  in    their    western    plantations.     The 


«   • 


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.       I. 


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THE  DISCOVERY   OF  AMERICA. 


51 


Portuguese  had  begun  to  plant  the  cane  on  the  Atlantic  Islands 
nearer  the  African  coast  before  America  was  discovered,  moved 
thereto,  in  a  measure,  by  the  ever-increasing  obstacles  to  eastern 
trade.  The  activity  of  the  Spanish  in  America  was  clearly  a  con- 
tinuation of  this  same  process.  A  growing  demand  for  the  good, 
and  an  ever-decreasing  market,  furnished  the  two  most  powerful 
stimuli  to  an  increase  of  supply. 


( 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


i 

11 


The  Demand  for  Sugar  in  Europe. 

The  demand  for  sugar  in  western  Europe  was  not  confined  in 
those  early  davs  exdusively  to  the  Spanish  Peninsula.     Its  use 
had  already  spread  to  England  in  the  thirteenth  century,  1264 
being  the  date  of  the  earliest  price  quotation  there,  the  prices 
quoted  ranging  from  one  shilling  to  two  shillings  per  pound.^ 
These  high  prices  continued  in  England  with  many  fluctuations 
during  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  and  indicate  that  the 
demand  in  England  must  have  been  great  in  proportion  to  the 
available  supply.     Mr.  Thorold  Rogers  has  found  it  necessary 
to  account  for  these  high  prices  and  their  wide  variations  on  the 
ground  of  the  "scanty  and  variable  nature  of  demand  and  supply 
of  so  expensive  a  luxury."^    From  the  side  of  England,  then,  there  ^ 
was  encouragement  for  anyone  who  contemplated  the  expansion 
of  the  area  of  sugar  cane  cultivation.    Moreover,  conditions  in 
England  at  that  time  were  such  as  to  make  possible  an  effective 
demand  for  the  good  things  of  life.    The  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries  were  marked  by  the  growth  in  wealth  and  distinction  of 
the  mercantile  classes  there.    ^'This/'  says  Cunningham,  "may  be 
cleariy  shown  from  their  increasing  organization  and  the  forma- 
tion and  incorporation  of  companies  of  merchants,  each  of  which 

»Thc  full  significance  of  this  high  price  of  sugar  appears  when  it  is 
remembered  that  money  then  was  worth  about  twenty  times  what  it  is 
worth  now.  From  this  computation  the  price  of  sugar  then,  translated  mto 
modern  terms,  would  have  been  from  one  to  two  P^^^^^.^^f  ^^  ^^^ 
ooimd  When  it  is  realized,  also,  that  wheat  in  1264  was  selling  at  from 
three  to  six  shillings  the  quarter  of  eight  bushels,  or  in  modern  terms  at 
from  seven  and  one-half  to  fifteen  shillings  per  bushel,  the  full  extent  to 
which  sugar  was  a  superfluity  and  a  luxury  becomes  apparent. 

•  James  E.  Thorold  Rogers,  "History  of  Agriculture  and  Prices  in  Eng- 
land," 1866,  I,  p.  633. 

(52) 


THE  DEMAND  FOR  SUGAR  IN  EUROPE. 


53 


%  _ 


<j». 


,*;» 


\ir 


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10 


4 


1» 


dealt  in  a  particular  class  of  goods."^  Cunningham  goes  on  to 
show  that  the  various  centers  of  trade  in  England  were  centers  of 
considerable  wealth,  a  fact  for  which  he  brings  proof  from  the 
lists  of  the  various  towns,  with  the  amounts  received  from  each, 
from  which  Richard  II  found  it  necessary  to  borrow  money  for 
carrying  on  his  government.  From  the  lists  which  Cunningham 
reproduces  one  may  readily  see  how  largely  the  various  English 
towns  were  drawn  on  in  this  levy,  and  how  significant  this  fact 
was  for  the  state  of  English  society.  "When,"  says  Cunningham, 
"the  towns  were  able  to  contribute  in  this  fashion,  we  may  see 
that  there  was  already  a  class  of  moneyed  men  not  only  in  Lon- 
don, but  in  provincial  towns  as  well,  who  were  able  to  bear  a  large 
part  of  the  burdens  which  had  hitherto  been  defrayed  by  the 
landed  interests,  either  ecclesiastical  or  lay."*  In  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury the  merchant  classes  of  England  attained  such  prestige  that 
they  at  times  entertained  even  royalty  itself. 

Nor  was  France  much  behind  England  in  her  demand  for  luxu- 
ries. White  sugar  is  mentioned  in  the  accounts  of  the  household 
of  the  Dauphin  du  Valumois  Humbert  II  for  the  year  1333,  and 
also  in  an  ordinance  of  John  II,  in  1353.  In  1420  Eustace  Des- 
champs,  a  poet,  mentions  sugar  as  one  of  the  greatest  expenses  of 
a  menage.  *^For  a  long  time  in  France,"  says  Figuier,  "they  sold 
sugar  only  in  medicinal  quantities,"^  and  he  ascribes  the  high 
price  of  it  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  to  the  fact 
that  the  Venetians  at  that  time  had  the  monopoly  of  the  com- 
merce of  the  Mediterranean,  and  could  thus  reguFate  prices 
through  their  control  of  the  supply.  However  this  may  be,  it  is 
evident  that  the  high  prices  paid  in  France,  by  indicating  a  demand 
for  sugar,  must  have  acted  as  an  extra  inducement  to  the  trans- 
portation of  the  cane  to  the  Atlantic  islands  by  the  inhabitants  of 
the  Iberian  Peninsula. 

In  Spain  at  that  age  there  was  a  like  era  of  general  prosperity. 

» Cunningham..  "Growth  of  English  Industry  and  Commerce."  I,  Early 
and  Middle  Ages.  1890,  p.  340. 

*  Cunningham,  1.  c,  Early  and  Middle  Ages,  1890,  p.  344. 

•  Figuier,  "Les  Merveilles  de  I'lndustrie,"  II,  p.  144- 


3^ 


SUGAR   AS  A   COMMODITY. 


Castile  in  itself  had  long  enjoyed  a  certain  measure  of  economic 
prosperity  through  the  early  development  of  its  towns.     Forced 
into  cohesion  by  the  invasions  of  the  Arabs,  these  small  political 
units  early  reached  a  state  of  solidarity  unknown  at  that  time 
in  other  parts  of  Europe,  and  this  political  strength  was  accom- 
panied by  great  production  of  wealth.    From  the  Arabs  the  people 
had  learned  "a  better  system  of  agriculture  and  a  dexterity  in  the 
mechanic  arts  unknown  in  other  parts  of  Christendom."*    "Aug- 
mentation of  wealth,"  Prescott  declares,  "the  usual  appetite  for 
expensive  pleasures,  and  the  popular  diffusion  of  luxury  in  the 
fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  is  attested  by  the  fashionable 
invective  of  the  satirist  and  by  the  impotence  of  repeated  sumptu- 
ary enactments."^    When  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  united  under  the 
crown  of  Spain  the  two  kingdoms  of  Aragon  and  Castile,  the 
economic  well-being  of  the  country  received  fresh  life,  for  all  the 
energy  that  these  two  states  had  spent  in  struggle  with  each 
other,  and  in  vying  for  superiority,  could  now  be  put  to  developing 
the  resources  of  Spain  as  a  whole.     Trade  and  industry  were 
accordingly  fostered  and  protected,  and  in  their  joint  reign  the 
"grand  period  of  Spanish  history"  was    ushered    in.     "At    the 
beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,"  says  Bernard  Moses,  in  a 
study  of  Spain  at  that  time,  "Spain  stood  in  relation  to  other 
nations  of  Europe  economically  higher  than  she  ever  stood  before 
or  has  ever  stood  since."«    The  chief  significance  of  this  period, 
both  in  England  and  in  Spain,  for  the  history  of  sugar,  lies  in  the 
development  of  moneyed  wealth  which  was  taking  place  in  both 
of  these  countries  at  that  time.    Such  wealth  naturally  brought 
with  it,  as  already  pointed  out,  a  demand  for  articles  of  luxury, 
pnd,  as  subsequent  years  have  shown,  sugar  occupied  in  this  eco- 
nomic movement  a  position  of  fip  slight  importance,  since  among 
fhe  luxuries  then  demanded  sugar  stood  in  the  first  rank. 

•  Prescott.  "History  of  the  Reign  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,"  edited  by 
John  Foster  Kirk,  Philadelphia,  I,  p.  zj. 

'Prescott,  1.  c,  I,  p.  29. 

•Bernard  Moses,  "The  Economic  Condition  of  Spain  in  the  Sixteenth 
Century,"  published  in  the  Annual  Report  of  the  American  Historical 
Association,  1893,  P-  125. 


-V.'*- 


r* 


^  ^^I^Hltllli' 


•-  V 


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I 


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./-■■  #■ 


I" 

r 


«,  ♦ 


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<■>.    I       '»      % 


•*^'V., 


^- 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Spanish  and  Portuguese  Activity. 

The  westward  migration  of  the  sugar  cane  belongs  in  its  earli- 
est stages  to  the  activity  of  the  Portuguese  navigators.  In  their 
voyages  toward  the  south,  undertaken  in  the  hope  of  finding  a 
new  trade  route  to  India  around  southern  Africa,  they  carried  the 
cane  with  them  and  planted  it  on  newly  discovered  lands.  As 
early  as  1422  it  was  brought  to  the  Madeira  Islands  by  Henry 
of  Portugal,  and  by  1472  it  had  been  carried  as  far  south  along 
the  west  coast  of  Africa  as  the  island  of  St.  Thomas,  on  the 
equatorial  line. 

Great  diversity  of  opinion  exists,  however,  among  those  who 
have  attempted  to  say  just  how  the  sugar  cane  finally  reached  the 
New  World.  The  controversy  hinges  on  the  question  as  to 
whether  the  sugar  cane  was  originally  a  native  of  America,  or 
whether  it  was  introduced  by  the  Spanish  discoverers.  The 
weight  of  evidence  seems  to  rest  with  those  who  claim  that  the 
cane  was  not  indigenous  to  American  soil,  but  was  brought  from 
Europe  in  the  first  years  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  real  sig-i 
nificance  of  the  discussion  for  the  present  study  is  not  very 
great,  and  the  various  details  of  proof  need  not  be  adduced. 
Whichever  side  is  right,  the  essentially  important  fact  remains, 
to  wit :  that  the  economic  conditions  of  the  times  were  such  that 
the  Spaniards  found  it  to  their  interest  and  advantage  to  plant  and 
cultivate  the  cane  in  their  American  possessions.  For  all  men  are 
unanimously  agreed,  that  however  and  whenever  the  cane  may 
have  been  introduced  into  America,  the  stimulus  to  the  develop- 
ment of  its  later  culture  was  brought  to  the  New  World  with  the 
adventurers  from  the  old,  and  that  the  whole  phenomenon  of  the 
sugar  plantations  in  America  belongs  exclusively  to  the  period  of 
European  occupation  of  her  shores.  It  is  of  small  moment,  also, 
whether  the  cane  was  taken  first  to  Brazil  and  then  brought  to 

(55) 


S6 


SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


SPANISH    AND    PORTUGUESE   ACTIVITY. 


57 


the  West  India  Islands  from  this  South  American  colony,  for 
here  again  the  significance  centers  in  the  application  of  European 
capital  to  the  cultivation  of  the  sugar  cane  in  these  undeveloped 
lands,  regardless  of  which  of  them  may  have  been  the  first  to 

receive  it. 

For  any  permanent  change  in  the  supply  of  an  economic  good, 
psychic  and  physical  circumstances  must  be  favorable.    Ifi  other 
words,  there  must  be  an  increased  demand,  and,  as  complementary 
to  this,  certain  external  conditions  of  environment  must  exist, 
which  make  it  possible  for  the  increased  demand  to  become  actu- 
ally effective.     In  analyzing  the  circumstances  under  which  the 
expansion  of  sugar  culture  from  Europe  in  the  fifteenth  and  six- 
teenth centuries  took  place,  just  such  a  favorable  combination 
of  psychic  and  physical  factors  is  seen  to  have  been  at  work.    On 
the  psychic  side  there  was  the  generally  increasing  demand  for  all 
forms  of  luxury  that  has  already  been  dealt  witE   at    length. 
Beside  this,  there  was  a  much  more  specific  stimulus  in  the 
consumption  of  a  Spanish  colonial  product,  newly  introduced  into 
I  Spain,  and  calling  for  sugar  as  its  complementary  good.     This 
product  was  the  fruit  of  the  cacao  tree,  which  had  been  used  and 
cultivated  by  the  American  Indians  long  before  the  Europeans 
found  their  way  to  the  shores  of  the  western  world.    "The  bean," 
says  Payne,  "was  at  once  introduced  into  Europe  (after  its  dis- 
covery in  America  by  the  Spaniards),  where  a  demand  for  it 
speedily  arose.'**    "Spain,"  adds  the  article  in  the  Encyclopedia 
Britannica,  "was  the  first  nation  in  which  its  use  became  common, 
and  to  this  day  cocoa  is  more  extensively  consumed  among  Span- 
iards than  by  any  other  European  community." 

It  did  not  take  the  Spaniards  long  to  recognize  the  great  value 
of  cacao  as  a  condiment,  a  food  and  a  stimulant,  and  they  early 
began  to  cultivate  it  themselves  in  their  American  possessions. 
"Cacao,"  says  Payne,  "usually  though  not  universally  preceded 
other  objects  of  tropical  agriculture  in  the  West  Indian  Islands, 
the  reason  being  that,  as  compared  with  sugar  and  tobacco,  it 
required  little  expenditure  of  either  capital  or  labor.    From  cacao, 

*  Payne,  1.  c,  I,  p,  424. 


-.  ♦  r  ^ 


wn 


.     li  "lir 


I 


I 


f» 


■  A. 


r-  -  ■ 


as  they  became  richer,  the  planters  turned  to  the  more  profitable 
culture  of  sugar,  tobacco  and  indigo,  and  hence  the  cultivation  of 
this  earliest  special  product  of  tropical  agriculture  in  the  New 
World  tended  to  diminish  where  European  capital  was  abundant, 
and  to  become  more  and  more  restricted  to  the  districts  where  it 
had  originated."^ 

This  apparent  shrinkage  in  the  area  of  the  cultivation  of  cacao 
after  the  first  expansion  under  the  stimulus  of  European  demand 
was  associated  with  another  fact  of  great  importance  in  the 
economic  and  social  history  of  Europe.  This  was  the  introduction 
of  tea  and  coffee.  Although  these  two  eastern  products  entered 
Europe  later  than  chocolate,^  so  popular  did  they  immediately 
become,  that  before  many  years  had  passed  they  had  in  great 
measure  usurped  the  place  held  up  to  that  time  by  cacao.  Payne 
has  enumerated  the  reasons  why  this  should  have  come  to  pass. 
He  says: 

"Owing  to  the  state  of  international  relations,  the  cacao  of  Spanish 
America  was  less  easily  procured  than  the  corresponding  products  of  the 
East.  Coffee  and  tea,  moreover,  were  more  easily  prepared,  required  no 
admixture  of  other  ingredients  and  proved  better  suited  than  chocolate 
to  the  taste  of  the  people  of  Northern  Europe.  The  last-named  beverage 
nevertheless  has  held  its  ground.  Its  fine  aromatic  quality,  its  cheapness, 
the  comparatively  mild  stimulus  which  it  communicates  to  the  nervous 
system,  and  the  positive  alimentary  properties  which  it  largely  possesses, 
render  it  in  the  present  day  of  increasing  importance,  and  the  cacao  tree 
may  fairly  be  assigned  a  rank  with  maize,  manioc  and  potatoes  among  the 

'  Payne.  1.  c,  I,  p.  424. 

'The  use  of  the  three  terms,  cacao,  cocoa  and  chocolate,  in  connection 
with  this  one  commodity  requires  perhaps  some  explanation  here.  Cacao 
is  properly  applied  to  the  tree  itself.  It  is  defined  by  the  Century  Dic- 
tionary as  follows:  "Cacao — ^the  chocolate  tree.  The  seeds  when  roasted 
and  divested  of  their  husks  and  crushed  are  known  as  cocoa  nibs.  These 
are  ground  into  an  oily  paste  and  mixed  with  sugar  and  flavoring  matters 
to  make  chocolate — the  most  important  product  of  the  cacao.  Cocoa  con- 
sists of  the  nibs  alone,  either  unground  or  ground,  dried  and  powdered,  or 
of  the  crude  paste  dried  in  flakes."  Under  "Chocolate"  I  find:  "Cacao, 
under  its  native  name  of  chocolatj,  had  been  used  as  a  beverage  by  the 
Mexicans  for  ages  before  their  country  was  conquered  by  the  Spaniards." 
Under  "Cocoa"  the  following  explanation  of  the  term  is  given:     "Cocoa 


i 


S8 


SUGAR   AS   A   COMMODITY. 


■f 


SPANISH    AND    PORTUGUESE    ACTIVITY. 


59 


cliief  benefits  which  the  discovery  of  America  has  conferred  on  the  world 

at  large."* 

In  considering  thus  the  relation  between  cacao  and  coflfee  and 
tea  I  have  anticipated  the  events  of  about  a  century  and  a  half,  for 
these  two  last-named  beverages  were  not  introduced  into  Europe 
until  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century.  One  fact,  however, 
which  Payne  has  mentioned  incidentally  in  the  above  quotation  had 
very  vital  importance  for  cacao  in  the  earliest  years  of  its 
European  experiences.  This  was  the  fact  that  the  cacao  bean 
requires  in  its  consumption  the  "admixture  of  other  ingredients." 
The  fruit  of  the  cacao  trees  can  never  be  consumed  alone.  The 
American  aborigines  pounded  the  bean  and  maize  together  into 
a  paste,  which  they  consumed  either  as  it  was  or  as  a  liquid  made 
by  adding  hot  water  in  sufficient  quantities.  Among  the  European 
nations  sugar  has  been  universally  selected  as  the  most  general 
admixture  for  cocoa,  and  it  is  to  this  fact  that  the  great  imporatnce 
of  chocolate  for  the  present  investigation  is  due.  The  introduc- 
tion of  cacao  into  Spain  followed  very  closely  upon  the  Spanish 
discovery  of  America,  and  the  subsequent  popularity  of  this  article 
doubtless  added  greatly  to  the  already  existent  demand  for  its 
complement,  sugar.  With  these  general  and  specific  causes  at 
work,  the  expansion  of  the  culture  of  the  cane  to  Spanish  America 
was  the  most  natural  consequence,  especially  since  the  physical 
conditions  there  were  peculiarly  favorable. 

In  the  tropical  parts  of  America  nature  seems  to  have  done  her 
uttermost  to  bring  together  all  the  circumstances  of  soil  and  cli- 
mate and  position  which  are  best  suited  to  the  growth  of  the  sugar 
cane.  Wray's  ** Practical  Sugar  Planter"  makes  the  following 
statements  with  regard  to  the  essential  climatic  features : 

"The  climate  most  congenial  to  the  sugar  cane  plant  is  of  a  warm  and 
moist  character,  with  moderate  intervals  of  hot  dry  weather  attempered 

(a  corruption  of  cacao  by  confusion  with  cocoa,  coco,  [a  palm  belonging 
to  the  genus  Cocos  producing  the  cocoanut]).  ...  the  ground  kernels 
of  the  cacao  and  chocolate  tree."  From  this  it  is  clear  that  cacao  refers  to 
the  tree,  cocoa  to  the  product  of  the  tree  unmixed  with  other  substances, 
and  chocolate  to  the  product  ground  and  mixed  with  various  substances. 
*  Payne,  1.  c,  I,  p.  425. 


TV     ip^P'^H 


iB«i' 


%• 


^««  »  w' 


*,  .4,  * 


^'^l 


by  the  refreshing  sea  breezes.  It  has  already  been  found  to  grow  most 
luxuriously  on  islands  and  along  the  seacoast  of  mainlands,  which  leads 
us  to  suspect  that  the  saline  particles  brought  on  sea  breezes  are  very 
favorable.  .  .  .  Within  the  tropics  the  cane  attains  its  greatest  perfec- 
tion. Cold  to  any  degree  does  not  suit  its  growth  or  development.  Hence 
it  cannot  be  cultivated  with  success  in  Europe,  although  it  has  often  been 
tried  in  Spain.  ...  In  the  West  Indies  periods  of  hot,  dry  and  rainy 
weather  are  well  defined  and  pretty  regular,  and  the  planters  commonly 
choose  spring  and  fall  as  the  most  eligible  times  for  planting  out  their  fields 
in  cane,  but  on  some  estates  canes  are  planted  and  manufactured  all  the  year 
round." ' 

The  ideal  conditions  for  the  cultivation  of  the  cane  here  enu- 
merated by  Wray  were  realized  in  the  West  India  Islands  and  on 
the  adjacent  shores  of  America,  ready  to  be  utilized  when  the 
demand  for  sugar  arose  among  European  peoples.  The  planting 
of  the  cane,  therefore,  in  these  parts  of  the  New  World  was  but 
the  bringing  of  these  two  factors — demand  and  supply — together 
into  a  favorable  economic  conjuncture. 

The  culture  of  the  sugar  cane  in  America  prospered  accord- 
ingly. The  first  of  the  West  India  Islands  on  which  it  was 
grown  was  Hispaniola  or  Hayti,  and  from  Herrera  we  learn  that 
it  throve  there  so  well  that  the  Jeronomite  friars,  who  were  sent  to 
the  island  in  151 5,  issued  orders  that  every  inhabitant  who  would 
erect  a  sugar  mill  should  have  five  hundred  pieces  of  eight  in  gold 
lent  to  him.  By  this  contrivance  there  were,  Herrera  declares, 
forty  water  or  horse  sugar  mills  on  the  island.* 

In  Spain,  also,  there  was  evidence  of  the  profit  which  accrued  to 
the  mother  country  from  these  sugar  plantations  in  the  New 
World.  Charles  V  is  known  to  have  obtained  funds  for  his 
palace  building  at  Madrid  and  Toledo,  from  the  dues  levied  on 
imports  (of  sugar)  brought  from  San  Domingo  to  Spain."^  The 
growing  commercial  importance  of  the  Spanish  colonies  to  the 
mother  country  is  well  attested  by  the  gradual  extension  in  Spain 
of  her  organization  of  the  trade  relations  with  her  American  pos- 
sessions, in  which  commerce  sugar  had  an  increasingly  important 

•Wray,  1.  c,  p.  48. 

"Herrera,  II  Decade,  Book  IL  p.  155. 

'  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  XXII,  p.  658  a. 


'» -* 


6o 


SUGAR   AS   A   COMMODITY. 


SPANISH    AND    PORTUGUESE;   ACTIVITY. 


6i 


part.  The  famous  "Casa  de  Contratacione  or  House  of  Tmde" 
was  established  at  Sevilla  in  1503  to  arrange  all  matters  of  com- 
merce with  the  colonies  and  to  supervise  and  manage  all  export 
and  import  cargoes.  The  powers  granted  to  this  body  at  its  first 
organization  were  very  extensive  and  full,  and  although  they  were 
later  somewhat  limited  by  the  erection  of  the  Council  of  the  Indies, 
this  House  of  Trade  at  Sevilla  continued  to  be  the  great  com- 
mercial medium  between  Spain  and  her  colonies.  Its  constitution 
was  finally  settled  in  1543  by  the  Ordinanza  de  la  Casa.  "C'est 
par  la  Casa,"  we  read,  "que  passerent  toutes  les  richesses  fabu- 
kuses  de  I'Amerique  Espagnole  pour  etre  reparties  aux  ayants 
droit,  y  compris  la  part  royale."® 

This  was  clearly  the  era  of  Portuguese  and  Spanish  supremacy 
in  the  sugar  world,  and  the  cultivation  of  sugar  was  steadily 
extended  by  these  peoples  throughout  the  sixteenth  century. 
According  to  Ritter,  the  cane  was  taken  to  Brazil  in  1531/'  Brazil 
was  long  the  source  of  the  finest  sugars  that  were  made,  and  in  the 
early  years  of  the  English  cultivation  of  the  cane  the  great  object 
of  the  English  planters  was  to  equal  the  product  of  the  Portuguese 
colony.  The  date  of  the  introduction  of  sugar  into  Cuba  is  most 
uncertain,  various  writers  claiming  various  dates  from  1535  to 
1580.  According  to  Alexander  von  Humboldt,  who  waives  the 
question  of  the  exact  date  of  the  first  sugar  cultivation  there,  the 
island  did  not  in  any  case  participate  in  the  sugar  industry  to  any 
extent  in  the  sixteenth  century,  so  that  its  whole  significance 
belongs  to  a  later  era.'®  The  island  of  Hispaniola,  on  the  contrary, 
seems  early  to  have  attained  great  importance  as  a  sugar  colony. 
In  1562  the  slave  trade  was  very  profitable  there — a.  reflection  of 
what  the  sugar  industry  must  then,  also,  have  been.  In  that  year 
Sir  John  Hawkins  took  some  negroes  there  from  Guinea,  "where 
he  sold  his  negroes  and  English  commodities,  and  loaded  home 
his  three  vessels  with  hides,  sugar  and  ginger,  and  also  many 
pearls,  returning  in  the  year  1563,  after  making  a  prosperous 

"Lavisse  ct  Rambaud,  "Histoire  Geiierale,"  1894,  IV,  p.  919. 
•  Ritter,  1.  c,  p.  409. 

"Alexander  von  Humboldt,  "The  Island  of  Cuba,"  1825,  translated  by 
Thrasher,  1856,  p.  251. 


w.i 


Tl 


r 


voyage. — This  seems,"  Anderson  adds,  "to  have  been  the  ver>'  first 
attempt  from  England  for  any  negro  trade."" 

The  monopoly  of  the  sugar  trade  was  in  these  years  in  the  hands 
of  the  Portuguese.  Spain  managed  the  carrying  of  her  own 
sugars,  as  is  evident  from  the  very  exclusive  commercial  policy 
that  she  adopted  at  that  time.  "No  foreigner,"  says  Mr.  Egerton, 
"might  enter  a  Spanish  colony  without  express  permission,  and 
the  penalty  of  death  was  enacted  against  the  colonist  who  should 
trade  with  any  foreign  ship.  Even  the  intercourse  of  colony  with 
colony  was  either  absolutely  prohibited  or  limited  by  severe  re- 
strictions."^^ The  bulk  of  the  transportation  of  sugar  at  this  time 
rested,  nevertheless,  with  the  Portuguese.  Their  great  colony  of 
Brazil,  according  to  Mr.  Egerton,  their  "one  example  of  genuine 
colonization,"^^  afforded  them  an  unfailing  source  of  supply  to  be 
carried  to  the  refiner  and  consumer  in  Europe.  In  their  expedi- 
tions about  Africa,  also,  sugar  formed  a  favorite  cargo.  Portu- 
guese sailors  visited  Madagascar  as  early  as  1506,  and  in  1515 
there  are  accounts  of  the  tales  they  told  of  the  sugar  cane  growing 
on  that  island.  During  the  rest  of  the  century,  also,  their  voyages 
around  Africa  did  not  cease,  and  sugar  was  brought  in  increasing 
quantities  to  I^isbon,  both  from  these  plantations  in  the  southern 
Atlantic  and  from  the  American  cane  fields.  Figuier  and 
Butel-Dumont,^^  in  their  comments  on  the  sugar  trade,  unite  in 
declaring  that  during  the  sixteenth  century  and  the  early  years 
of  the  seventeenth  the  Portuguese  navigators  retained  the  naval 
supremacy  in  their  hands,  among  the  nations  of  Europe,  and  as  a 
part  of  it  the  monopoly  of  the  carrying  trade  in  sugar.  "Lisbon 
owed  to  this  traffic,"  says  Figuier,  "together  with  the  commerce 
with  India,  the  greatest  splendor.  But  various  causes  contributed 
to  take  from  them  this  source  of  wealth.  The  Portuguese  fell 
under  Spain,  and  the  establishments  of  other  European  nations  in 
the  West  Indies     .     .     .     began  to  cultivate  sugar ."^® 

"Anderson,  I.  c,  II,  p.  117. 

"H.  E.  Egerton,  "Origin  and  Growth  of  the  English  Colonies  and  of 
Their  System  of  Government,"  1903,  p.  44. 

"  Egerton,  1.  c,  p.  45. 

"  Ritter,  1.  c,  p.  383. 

""Histoire  et  Commerce  des  Antilles  Angloises,"  attribue  a  M.  Butel- 
Dumont,  1758,  p.  210. 

"  Figuier,  1.  c,  II,  p.  10. 


Illllll^^^ 


-M 


THE  ENGLISH  REFINING  INDUSTRY. 


The  English  Refining  Industry. 

Even  during  the  period  when  the  Portuguese  were  still  supreme 
in  the  raising  of  sugar  and  in  transporting  it  to  Lisbon,  the  people 
of  the  Netherlands  were  taking  to  themselves  the  refining  industry 
and  the  actual  distribution  of  sugar  to  European  ports.  The 
Dutch  in  the  sixteenth  century  were  accustomed  to  call  at  Lisbon 
and  carry  the  sugars  to  Antwerp,  where  they  were  refined,  for 
Antwerp  was  during  this  century  the  great  center  of  the  refining 
industry.  Antwerp  was,  says  Anderson,  "the  most  celebrated 
magazine  of  commerce  in  all  Europe,  if  not  of  the  whole  world,  it 
having  been  at  this  time  a  common  thing  to  see  two  thousand  five 
hundred  ships  in  the  Scheld  laden  with  all  sorts  of  merchandises 
...  in  one  word,  Antwerp  was  then  almost  what  Amsterdam 
is  now,  a  general  store-house  for  the  whole  world. "^  Antwerp 
continued  to  hold  her  place  as  the  chief  center  for  sugar  refining 
until  the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth  century,  when  by  force  of 
circumstances  she  finally  gave  'way  to  England,  who  was  to 
become  supreme  in  this  department  of  producing  sugar  values 
long  before  she  possessed  the  monopoly  of  the  cultivation  of  the 
cane,  or  of  the  carrying  trade.^ 

"Anderson.  I  c,  II,  p.  87,  quoted  in  part  from  M.  Huet,  Bishop  of 
Avranches,  in  "Memoirs  of  Dutch  Commerce." 

"The  entries  in  Anderson's  "Treatise  on  Commerce"  for  the  year  1560 
throw  valuable  light  upon  the  part  that  Antwerp  was  then  playing  in  the 
commerce  of  the  world,  as  also  upon  the  sources  and  manner  of  distribu- 
tion of  sugar  among  the  European  ports.  I  have  extracted  the  data  relat- 
ing to  sugar  and  shall  review  them  here.  Anderson's  notes  are  taken  from 
"The  Description  of  the  Netherlands,"  by  Louis  Guicciardini.  "As  the 
famous  city  of  Antwerp/'  says  Anderson,  "was  in  this  year  (1560)  in  its 
zenith  of  prosperity,  we  imagine  that  a  general  view  of  its  commerce  at 
this  period  (as  exhibited  by  Guicciardini)  .  .  .  will  not  be  unaccept- 
able to  our  curious  readers."    Sugar,  it  will  also  be  remembered,  was  in 

(62) 


i« 


f-iff^ 


1^\ 


^1 


^'■C  '"^1 


63 


Indeed,  the  first  attempts  in  England  at  sugar  refining  were 
made  as  early  as  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Accord- 
ing to  Mr.  Reed,  who  quotes  Stow's  "Survey  of  London,"  two 
sugar  houses  were  started  in  London  in  1544,  but  there  were  at 
that  time  so  many  sugar  refiners  already  at  Antwerp,  "who  could 
supply  refined  sugar  to  England,  and  cheaper  than  it  could  be 
made  at  home,  that  these  two  houses  drew  little  profit  from  it."* 
The  English  industry  was  destined  to  thrive  but  little  in  this 
respect,  and  no  more  than  these  two  original  sugar  houses  were 
established  in  London  until  toward  the  end  of  the  century  the 
Flemish  base  of  supply  was  cut  off  from  the  English  consumer. 

The  first  interruption  between  England  and  the  Netherlands  came 
in  1568,  when  the  Duke  of  Alva  seized  "on  the  Merchant  Adven- 
turers at  Antwerp  to  the  value  of  about  £100,000  sterling,"*  in 

1560  selling  in  England  at  is.  3d.  per  pound.  The  merchants  of  Antwerp 
were,  according  to  Anderson's  quotations,  sending  sugar  to  Germany,  and 
to  Denmark,  Norway,  Sweden,  Eastland,  Lavonia  and  Poland,  along  with 
"vast  quantities  of  spices,  drugs  and  saffron."  She  sent  sugar  also  to  Eng- 
land and  Scotland,  and  forwarded  it  to  Venice  and  Milan,  a  fact  not 
without  significance  for  European  commerce  at  that  time,  since  it  indi- 
cates quite  clearly  that  the  Venetians  had  already  "found  themselves 
unable  to  compete  with  their  rivals,  the  Portuguese  .  .  ."  and  that  the 
former  supremacy  of  Venice  as  a  trading  center  had  been  obliged  to  yield 
before  the  rising  power  of  Lisbon,  which  had  now  become  the  resort  of 
traders  from  every  part  of  Europe."  (Craik,  "British  Commerce,"  1844. 
I,  p.  215).  The  Lisbon  merchants,  Craik  tells  us,  also  carried  the  pro- 
ductions of  India  in  so  much  greater  quantities  than  had  ever  been  known 
before,  to  the  great  intermediate  mart  of  Antwerp,  that  the  wealth  and 
grandeur  of  the  latter  city  also  may  be  said  to  have  commenced  with 
this  date  (the  sixteenth  century).  Antwerp  received  from  Portugal  most 
of  the  sugar  that  she  again  exported.  Portugal,  in  her  turn,  had  it 
(according  to  Guicciardini)  from  "St.  Thomas  under  the  equinoctial  line 
and  from  other  isles  on  the  African  coast,"  and  from  Madeira.  Spanish 
sugar  from  the  Canary  Islands,  and  the  sugar  of  Barbary,  also  found 
its  way  to  Antwerp  at  this  time.  "No  sugars,"  adds  Anderson,  "were 
as  yet  brought  from  Brazil  nor  from  any  other  part  of  America." 
(Anderson,  1.  c,  II,  p.  113.)  To  this  last  statement  I  have  later  taken 
most  decided  exception.    See  pp.  67  sq. 

'Wm.  Reed,  "History  of  Sugar  and  of  Sugar  Yielding  Plants,"   1866, 
p.  10. 

*  Anderson,  1.  c,  II,  p.  127. 


liiiiiii I ii iiiliiiiiliiiii 


(14 


SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


retaliation  for  a  seizure  by  English  sea-rovers  of  some  treasure 
that  Spanish  ships  were  carrying  to  the  low  countries.  "The 
breach  with  Spain  that  followed,"  says  Cunningham,  "and  the 
interruption  of  the  Netherlands  trade, led  to  the  transference  of  the 
Merchant  Adventurers'  factory  from  Antwerp  to  Hamburg, 
where  the  trade  was  carried  on  successfully  for  some  ten  years,  till 
the  Hansards  drove  them  out."''  It  is,  therefore,  most  probable 
that  in  1568  the  English  were  obliged  to  turn  to  refining  sugar  for 
their  own  use.  Seventeen  years  later,  when  the  Duke  of  Parma,  in 
1585,  completed  the  sack  of  Antwerp  and  the  destruction  of  all 
her  shipping  and  industry,  the  English  were  driven  decisively  to 
undertake  the  refining  of  sugar.  It  passed  as  by  natural  right 
across  the  North  Sea  from  Antwerp  to  England,  where  the  mer- 
chants immediately  began  to  grow  wealthy  from  this  pursuit. 
From  that  date  England  became  the  chief  seat  of  the  refining  of 
sugar  in  Europe.  After  the  sack  of  Antwerp,  Reed  says,  these 
two  sugar  houses  already  established  supplied  England  with 
sugar,  "and  became  so  wealthy  that  many  other  persons  embarked 
on  the  business,"*'  and  Moseley  adds  in  his  treatise  that  "England, 
which  had  formerly  been  supplied  with  refined  sugar  from  Ant- 
werp, the  chief  commercial  city  then  in  Europe,  now  not  only  sup- 
plied itself,  but  exported  great  quantities  to  other  countries."^  ®. 

•  Cunningham,  1.  c,  II,  Modern  Times,  1892,  p.  25. 

•  Reed,  1.  c,  p.  10. 

'  Moseley,  I  c,  p.  73. 

•As  would  be  expected,  there  is  in  1585  in  England  a  rise  in  the  price 
of  sugar  over  that  of  the  period  immediately  preceding.  The  higher 
prices  prevail  for  about  two  years  with  slight  fluctuation  until  the  end  of 
the  year  1586,  when,  evidently,  English  capital  was  able  to  respond  to 
the  extra  demand  put  upon  it.  The  entries  in  Rogers  for  1585  are  very 
numerous,  and  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  while  in  1583  sugar  sold  in 
general  at  about  i  shilling  or  i  shilling  2  pence  the  pound,  some 
of  the  entries  for  1585  showing  also  this  low  price,  in  the  latter  part  of  this 
year  the  price  rises  suddenly  to  i  and  7  or  i  and  8  the  pound. 


r*'4.  ^' 


'^♦,- 


#*     «•■ 


'•-■ 


:|     . 


V!  "mf 


CHAPTER  XL 
Increasing  Supply  of  Sugar. 

Despite  this  early  beginning  of  the  refining  of  sugar  in  England, 
the  English  did  not  commence  to  cultivate  the  sugar  cane  until 
well  on  in  the  seventeenth  century.  '*We  must,"  says  Mr.  Eger- 
ton,  "wait  for  more  than  a  hundred  years  (after  the  voyages  of  the 
Cabots)  for  the  first  English  colony,"^ — and  the  first  ventures  in 
cane  culture  in  the  West  India  Islands  were  not  made  until  about 
thirty-five  years  after  the  first  successful  attempt  at  English  colo- 
nization in  America.  During  these  intervening  years  events  gen- 
eral and  specific  were  shaping  themselves  in  England  which  were 
to  make  her  planting  of  sugar  when  it  should  finally  come,  not  an 
isolated  phenomenon,  but  the  natural  consequence  of  the  ten- 
dency of  that  age. 

That  sugar  had  been  consumed  in  England  long  before  the 
seventeenth  century  has  already  been  made  clear.  As  mentioned 
above,  the  first  account  of  its  use  there  is  for  the  year  1264,  and 
the  entries  for  the  years  after  that  date  are  increasingly  numerous. 
There  were  in  those  early  years  various  kinds  of  sugar  in  use  in 
England,  distinguished  from  each  other  by  the  names  of  the 
localities  from  which  they  came,  and  diflFering  greatly  in  price. 
The  sugars  from  Alexandria  and  Cyprus  seem  to  have  been  much 
cheaper  than  the  other  sorts,  and  this  can  probably  be  explained 
on  the  ground  of  the  Very  poor  refining  which  was  practised  in 
those  neighborhoods.  In  Sicily,  in  the  thirteenth  century,  this  art 
was  encouraged  and  fostered  by  Frederick  II,  so  that  it  is  most 
probable  that  the  most  expensive  sugars  quoted  in  England  then 
were  brought  from  this  island.^  In  the  year  13 19  there  is  the  first 
explicit  mention  of  a  shipment  of  sugar  to  England.     It  is  in 

'  H.  E.  Egerton,  "A  Short  History  of  British  Colonial  Policy,"  1897,  P-  13. 

"  In  1264  "sugar"  in  England  cost  2  shillings  the  pound,  while  that  from 

Alexandria  is  quoted  at  10  pence,  and  in  1334  Cyprus  sugar  at  7  pence. 

5  (65) 


v.l'V* 


4-+  i 


66 


SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY, 


INCREASING  SUPPLY  OF  SUGAR. 


67 


Marin's  "Storia  del  Commercio  de  Veneziani,""  and  records  that 
one  hundred  thousand  pounds  of  sugar  were  sent  to  England, 
there  to  be  exchanged  for  wool.  There  is  furnished  also  a  clue  as 
to  what  sugar  was  worth  in  England  in  that  year,  for  in  the 
accounts  of  the  Chamberlain  of  Scotland  there  is  an  item  of  the 
purchase  of  sugar  at  one  shilling  and  one-half  pence  the 
pound.* 

Probably  owing  to  the  extension  of  cane  culture  to  the  islands 
near  Africa,  and  the  subsequent  increase  in  the  supply  of  sugar, 
the  price  in  England  during  the  first  decade  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
ttiry  was  much  lower  than  in  preceding  years.  The  majority  of 
the  entries  in  Rogers  for  this  time  are  quoted  at  three  or  four 
pence  the  pound.*    Relatively  low  prices  continued  in  England 

In  the  latter  year  "sugar  in  cake"  is  sold  at  i  shilling  2  pence  the  pound. 
In  1285  there  are  records  of  numerous  purchases  by  Earl  Clare,  who, 
according  to  Rogers,  "buys  two  'pots'  designated  as  'sugar  of  roses'  and 
'sugar  of  violets/  the  former  of  which  costs  14  shillings,  the  latter  13 
shillings."  (Rogers,  1.  c,  I,  p.  633-)  The  prices  of  sugar  in  England 
at  that  time  were  very  various,  and  Mr.  Rogers  is  inclined  to  attribute 
this  fluctuation  to  the  "scanty  and  variable  nature  of  the  demand  and 
supply  of  so  expensive  a  luxury."  (Rogers,  Ibid.)  He  points  out  that 
'•in  laBs,  when  the  large  purchases  of  Earl  Clare  are  made,  the  average 
price  of  two  quantities  is  SVi  pence,  the  lowest  price  recorded,  with  the 
exception  of  the  Cyprus  sugar  of  1334.  But  in  1264  the  Countess  of 
Leicester  buys  sugar  in  London  on  the  29th  of  March  and  the  5th  of 
April  at  i  shilling,  while  on  July  15th  another  quantity  costs  2  shillings, 
some  of  that  purchased  for  the  King's  Wardrobe  being  also  purchased 
at  the  latter  rate.  In  1392  half  a  pound  of  sugar  is  purchased  at 
Shrewsbury  at  2  shillings,  and,  generally,  the  article  is  dearer  during 
the  latter  half  of  the  fourteenth  century."  (Rogers,  1  .c,  I,  p.  634.)  This 
rise  must  be  due  to  the  fact  that  the  demand  in  England  was  growing 
faster  than  the  available  supply,  and  illustrates  without  doubt  one  of 
the  potent  causes  which  led  Spain  and  Portugal  to  begin  to  extend  the 
area  of  cultivation  to  the  islands  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  in  the  latter 
fourteenth  and  early  fifteenth  centuries. 

*  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  XXII,  p.  658  a. 

•The  prices  quoted  by  Mr.  Rogers  for  wheat  in  this  same  decade 
range  from  10  shillings  the  quarter  of  eight  bushels  to  3  shillings  for  the 
same  quantity,  or  from  i  shilling  3  pence  to  4J4  pence  the  bushel.    Com- 


%  t 


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I 


I,. 

(f  ' 


until  about  1545,  when  they  advanced  rapidly.  This  was,  as  Mr. 
Rogers  remarks,  due  doubtless  in  largest  part  to  the  debasement  of 
the  currency  by  Henry  VIII,  although  the  discovery  of  silver  in 
America  in  the  latter  half  of  the  sixteenth  century  must  also  have 
been  in  great  measure  responsible. 

In  the  year  15 18  the  Turks  took  possession  of  Egypt,  thus 
finally  closing  to  western  Europe  all  eastern  sources  for  sugar, 
as  for  other  Oriental  commodities,  in  so  far  as  the  Mediterranean 
trade  routes  were  concerned.  The  result  of  this  interruption  to 
commerce  was  that  the  prices  of  eastern  products  in  general  rose 
immediately  and  to  a  great  height.  Other  things  being  equal,  it 
would  have  been  natural  to  suppose  that  the  price  of  sugar  should 
have  followed  this  general  tendency.  Mr.  Rogers  goes  so  far  as  to 
say  that  it  did.®  In  examining  most  carefully  his  tables,  however, 
I  have  been  unable  to  find  any  such  advance  in  the  price  of  sugar 
as  he  claims  for  the  years  after  1521.  In  fact,  despite  the  disturb- 
ing events  in  the  East,  I  find  in  these  years  persistently  low  prices 
of  sugar,  which  I  attribute  to  the  steady  increase  of  the  supply 
from  the  western  plantations.  Mr.  Rogers  seems  to  look  only  to 
the  East  as  the  source  of  supply,  whereas  the  whole  tendency  of 
the  era  with  which  he  is  dealing  was,  by  extending  the  cultivation 
of  the  cane  always  farther  and  farther  to  the  west,  to  open  up 
independent  bases  of  supply  for  the  nations  of  western  Europe. 

This  process  of  the  western  expansion  of  sugar  culture  had  been 
going  on  for  a  century  in  152 1,  for  it  was  just  ninety-nine  years 

paring  the  highest  prices  quoted  in  this  period  for  wheat  and  for  sugar, 
we  find  that  i  shilling  3  pence  for  wheat  stands  over  against  4  pence  for 
sugar.  Comparing  this  ratio  with  that  of  1264,  namely,  2  shillings  for 
one  pound  of  sugar,  and  6  shillings  for  one  quarter,  or  9  pence  for  one 
bushel  of  wheat,  it  is  evident  that  in  the  first  decade  of  the  sixteenth 
century  the  price  of  one  pound  of  sugar  was  much  less  compared  with 
that  of  one  bushel  of  wheat  than  it  had  been  in  the  earlier  period.  The 
ratios  stand  as  follows : 

Sugar  (I  pound)  Wheat  (i  bushel) 

1264        2  shillings  9  pence  =  24:9 

1500-1510       4  pence  is.  3d.    =    4:15 

Reduced  to  a  common  denominator  these  become  |f|^  and  ff|. 

•"If,"  Mr.  Rogers  says,  "my  readers  will  consult  the  annual  prices  or 


68 


SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


before  that  date  that  the  Portugiiese  carried  the  first  cuttings  from 
Sicily  to  the  Madeira  Islands.  It  had,  as  already  recorded,  been 
going  on  steadily  ever  since  that  date,  and  all  positive  evidence 
goes  to  show  that  by  the  year  1521  considerable  quantities  of  sugar 
were  being  brought  from  these  western  cane  fields  into  western 

Europe. 

Contemporary  writings  of  this  period  abound  in  mention  of  the 
flourishing  condition  of  sugar  culture  in  America  at  this  time,  and 
of  the  large  imports  thence  into  Spain.  While  absolute  reliance 
cannot  be  placed  on  what  these  old  chroniclers  have  said,  still  it  is 
safe  to  assume  that  there  must  have  been  a  large  amount  of  truth 
behind  such  glowing  accounts.  The  action  of  the  Jeronomite 
Friars  in  Hispaniola  in  the  early  sixteenth  century  has  already 

still  more  conveniently  the  decennial  averages,  he  may  notice  that  during 
the  twenty  years,  1521- 1540,  a  marked  rise  takes  place  in  all  articles  of 
Eastern  produce.  The  progress  of  the  Turkish  arras  in  Western  Asia  and 
Eastern  Europe  had  undoubtedly,  as  it  dammed  up  the  old  channels 
of  trade  and  drove  commerce  into  the  only  course  left  to  it  through 
Egypt,  heightened  the  price  of  the  product  continuously  for  fifty  years 
and  more.  But  the  sharpest  rise  takes  place  after  1520.  The  rise  is  about 
30  per  cent,  on  paper,  over  40  per  cent,  on  cloves,  over  90  per  cent,  on  mace, 
0¥er  23  per  cent,  on  cinnamon  and  on  dates,  then  produced  entirely  in 
Egypt.  The  case  of  sugar  is  more  striking  still.  In  the  latter  part  of 
the  fourteenth  century  sugar  was  worth  19  shillings  the  dozen  pounds. 
It  became  still  dearer  in  the  first  half  of  the  fifteenth  century.  The 
entries,  indeed,  are  very  few,  for  the  price,  24  shillings  the  dozen,  was 
almost  prohibitive,  and  two  out  of  the  three  entries  are  from  the  expen- 
ditures of  opulent  persons.  Nor  do  I  doubt  that  the  price  of  this  article 
was  during  this  period  everywhere  in  England  at  such  rates  as  my  entries 
represent,  for  I  am  sure  that  it  would  have  been  found  at  occasional  feasts 
given  at  the  visits  of  distinguished  persons  if  the  price  had  not  been 
considered  too  extravagant  for  prudent  purchase,  and  too  much  to  expect 
from  any  host,  however  grateful,  expectant  or  prudent  he  might  be. 
Between  1490-1510  it  rapidly  declines;  in  1495  and  1503  it  is  about  2s.  9d. 
the  dozen.  After  the  conquest  of  Egypt  these  latter  prices  are  more  than 
doubled."  (Rogers,  1.  c,  IV,  pp.  656,  657.)  A  careful  examination  of 
Mr.  Rogers's  tables  does  show  that  the  price  of  sugar  did,  indeed,  begin 
to  rise  somewhat  after  1510,  for  while  the  decennial  average  for  1501- 
1510  was  3s.  4^4d.  the  dozen  pounds,  that  for  1511-1520  was  6s.  2j^d. 
For  the  decade  1521-1530,  for  which  Mr.  Rogers  claims  the  sharpest  rise, 
the  average  price  is  6s.  9j4d.,  as  will  be  seen,  a  relatively  small  advance 


'4: 


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INCREASING  SUPPLY  OF  SUGAR. 


69 


;  -  J^  1 


been  alluded  to,  and  need  not  here  be  reviewed.^  Peter  Martyr 
is  quoted  by  Moseley  as  having  declared  that  in  1518  there  were 
tvi^enty-eight  sugar  mills  in  Hispaniola,  established  by  the  Span- 
iards. He  says,  "It  is  a  marvelous  thing  to  consider  how  all 
things  increase  and  prosper  in  this  island.  There  are  now  twenty- 
eight  sugar  presses,  wherewith  great  plenty  of  sugar  is  made. 
One  root  beareth  twenty  and  often  thirty  canes."®  The  great 
revenues  of  Charles  V  from  duties  on  sugar  have  also  been 
referred  to  above.®     Purchas  in  "His  Pilgrimes"  writes  of  His- 

over  the  preceding  decade.  This  same  advance  of  yd.,  moreover,  is  seen 
also  for  the  years  1 531- 1540  over  1521-1530,  without  the  influence  of  any 
new  disturbing  causes.  These  figures  seem  conclusively  to  refute  Mr. 
Rogers's  statement  with  regard  to  the  "sharp  and  sudden  rise  in  the 
price  of  sugar"  after  1520.  The  decided  diflFerence  between  the  average 
for  1501-1510  and  that  for  1511-1520  was  most  probably  due  to  the  Turkish 
conquests  in  the  East.  That,  however,  this  rise  did  not  continue  and 
with  much  greater  emphasis  after  1520  seems  to  point  unmistakably  to  the 
western  cane  fields  which,  after  1520,  surely,  were  beginning  to  yield  rich 
returns.  Mr.  Rogers  does,  indeed,  mention  these  sources  of  supply,  but 
he  is  so  impressed  with  the  necessity  of  a  great  rise  in  the  price  of  sugar 
as  the  logical  consequence  of  the  capture  of  Egypt  that  he  is  unwilling 
to  give  them  their  full  due,  and  dismisses  them  as  follows,  with  but 
partial  recognition: 

"I  have,  indeed,  no  proof,  but  I  have  no  doubt  that  up  to  the  end  of  the 
sixteenth  century  the  sugar  industry  was  steadily  growing  in  Alexandria. 
It  was,  indeed,  introduced  into  Madeira  in  the  early  part  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  and  into  the  New  World  shortly  after  the  discovery  of  Columbus. 
It  became  an  industry  in  Brazil  and  Mexico  early  in  the  sixteenth  century. 
Supplies  from  these  regions  would  no  doubt  check  the  reaction  on  prices 
which  the  conquest  of  Egypt  in  15 18  effected,  and  the  almost  entire  annihi- 
lation of  the  industry.  But  they  were  not  sufficient  to  arrest  the  rise, 
and  thus  prices  tend  upwards  till  it  becomes  impossible  to  distinguish  the 
effect  induced  by  the  destruction  of  the  Egyptian  trade  from  that  which 
came  in  the  first  place  by  the  issue  of  Henry  and  Edward's  base  money, 
and  the  final  exaltation  of  general  prices.  But  there  is  no  article  in  which 
it  seems  more  easy  to  trace — few  as  the  entries  are — the  effect  of  political 
events  on  merchantable  commodities." — Rogers,  1.  c,  IV,  pp.  675,  676. 

'  See  ante,  page  59. 

•Peter  Martyr,  English  edition  1577,  p.  172,  quoted  by  Moseley,  1.  c, 
p.  30.    Original  edition  published  in  Spain  in  1530. 

•  See  ante,  page  59. 


70 


SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


paeiola  as  follows:  "Their  swine  did  multiply  exceedingly,  but 
as  an  enemy  to  their  sugars,  a  great  commodity  in  Hispaniola, 
where  in  1535  Oviedo  reckons  almost  thirty  ingenios,  the  number 
daily  increasing,  they  were  forced  to  root  out  this  rooting  kind  of 
beast.'"  Southey  narrates  that  in  15 19  a  royal  audience  stated  to 
the  King  of  Spain  that  in  Jamaica  .  .  .  they  had  sugar 
mills,  and  requested  him  to  settle  with  the  King  of  Portugal 
about  a  supply  of  negroes  for  the  islands,  which  if  not  speedily 
obtained  the  islands  would  be  ruined.""  Martin  adds  that  in  1523 
there  were  thirty  sugar  mills  established  in  Jamaica." 

For  the  continental  parts  of  America  there  are  also  similar 
records.  Peter  Cieza,  w^ho  traveled  in  Peru  and  other  parts  of 
South  America  during  the  years  1533-1550,  is  quoted  by  Moseley 
as  saying:  **In  several  parts  of  the  vales  near  the  city  of  St. 
Michael  there  are  large  fields  of  sugar  cane  whereof  sugar  is  made 
in  several  towns  and  preserves.""  Oviedo  declares,  also,  for  the 
year  151 5,  that  "there  is  such  abundance  of  sugar  in  Mexico  that 
certain  Spanish  ships  are  yearly  freighted  therewith  and  bring 
the  same  to  Sevilla,  in  Spain,  from  whence  it  is  carried  to  all  parts 
of  Christendom/'^* 

Nor  were  the  islands  nearer  Europe  failing  in  their  sugar 
supply  during  this  period.  The  island  of  St.  Thomas,  particularly, 
heM  a  promLnt  phce  among  the  areas  of  sugar  cullivation.  ll 
will  be  remembered  that  sugar  was  planted  there  by  the  Portu- 
guese in  1472,  and  according  to  Ritter  rich  harvests  followed  soon 
after  its  first  planting.  Actual  accounts  for  the  first  years  of  the 
sixteenth  century  are  lacking,  but  the  extent  to  which  the  sugar 
industry  had  been  carried  in  the  island  at  the  middle  of  the  cen- 
tury leads  one  inevitably  to  the  conclusion  that  in  the  earlier 
decades  it  must  have  assumed  considerable  proportions.  Ritter 
records  the  report  of  an  unnamed  Portuguese  pilot  to  the  Portu- 
guese Count  Rimondo  della  Torre,  to  the  eflFect  that  at  the  middle 


^Purchas,  "His  Pilgrimes,"  1625,  V  Book.  VIII,  p.  804. 

^  Southey,  ''Chronological  History  of  the  West  Indies,"  I,  p.  143. 

^  Martin,  "History  of  West  Indies,"  1836,  I,  p.  9. 

*•  Moseley,  I.  c,  p.  32.,  quoted  from  Cieza,  cap.,  64,  p.  167. 


Moseley,  1.  c,  p.  32. 


'   I*  * 

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m.    f 


-"■^it'^ 


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INCREASING  SUPPLY  OF  SUGAR. 


71 


of  the  sixteenth  century  St.  Thomas  had  already  sixty  plantations, 
with  many  canals,  sugar  mills,  boiling  pans  and  other  necessary 
utensils."  The  Madeira  and  Canary  Islands  were  also  in  the  early 
sixteenth  century  still  in  a  most  prosperous  condition,  their  period 
of  decline  not  having  yet  set  in.  To  the  generally  flourishing  state 
of  sugar  culture  in  the  Atlantic  Islands  at  this  time  Ritter  bears 
full  testimony  in  the  following  words : 

"Als  spater  die  Zuckerpflanzungen  in  den  oceanischen  westlicheren 
tropischen  Inselgegenden  und  Gestadewelten  mit  viel  iippigerem  Ertragc 
angesiedelt  wurden,  musste  die  Cultur  in  Sicilien  weichen.  Bei  Syrakus 
wo  sie  noch  allein  ausser  der  Umgebung  von  Palermo  mit  einigem  Nach- 
druck  betrieben  wurde  am  Fluss  Mirando  zwischen  Syrakus  und  Pachino 
nahm  sie  schon  unter  Kaiser  Karl  V  sehr  ab."  " 

In  Hakluyt  there  is  direct  reference  to  the  fact  that  in  1526  and 
"for  some  time  previous  certain  merchants  of  Bristol  did  by  the 
ships  of  St.  Lucar  in  Spain  trade  to  the  Canary  Islands,  sending 
thither  cloth,  soap,  etc.,  and  return  with  dyeing  drugs,  sugar  and 
kid  skins,"  and  that  ''they  also  sent  thither  their  factors  from 
Spain."" 

These  several  notices  referring  to  the  production  of  sugar  in 
the  single  plantations  make,  when  combined  into  one  testimony,  a 
great  weight  of  evidence  against  Mr.  Rogers'  conclusion.  The 
witness  that  they  bear  to  the  amount  of  sugar  that  was  then  being 
produced  in  the  Atlantic  islands  and  on  the  mainland  of  America, 
together  with  the  fact,  taken  from  his  own  tables,  that  the  price 
of  sugar  did  not  after  15 18  rise  immediately  or  decidedly  over  that 
of  the  preceding  decades ; — these  two  circumstances  make  it  clear 
beyond  a  doubt,  I  believe,  that  the  western  plantations  were 
already  asserting  their  supremacy  in  the  sugar  world.  On  no 
other  grounds  can  one  explain  the  phenomenon  of  the  relatively 
low  price  of  sugar  in  the  midst  of  the  great  rise  in  the  prices 
of  other  eastern  commodities  at  the  end  of  the  first  quarter  of  the 
sixteenth  century. 

"  Ritter,  1.  c,  p.  398. 
*•  Ritter,  1.  c,  p.  404. 
"  Hakluyt's  Voyages,  II,  p.  3,  quoted  by  Anderson,  1.  c.,  11,  p.  48. 


"■■-<% 


#■:' 


SUGAR  A  LUXURY   IN   ENGLAND, 


73 


CHAPTER  XII. 
Sugar  a  Luxury  in  England. 

As  already  stated  in  the  preceding  chapter,  there  was  a  quick  and 
decided  rise  in  the  price  of  sugar  after  the  great  debasement  of  the 
EngHsh  currency  in  1544.  Between  the  years  1543  and  1545  the 
price  is  more  than  doubled,  and,  as  Mr.  Rogers  declares  in  a  note 
already  quoted,  these  high  prices  continue  to  prevail  without  inter- 
ruption for  many  years.* 

The  fact  that  in  1545,  when  prices  in  general  in  England  were 
enhanced,  the  price  of  sugar  responded  so  readily  to  the  general 
advance,  indicates  with  certainty  that  its  use  was  becoming  estab- 
lished among  the  English  people.  In  a  time  of  rising  prices,  from 
whatever  cause  the  rise  may  come,  those  articles  which  are  con- 
sidered most  essential  are  the  first  to  show  the  increase.  Sugar 
had  not,  however,  as  yet  passed  beyond  the  rank  of  a  superfluity, 
insofar  as  the  great  mass  of  the  English  people  were  concerned, 
and  was  still  regarded  as  dispensable  by  most  of  those  who  con- 
sumed it.  That,  therefore,  at  this  time  of  rising  prices,  which  in 
common  with  all  such  periods  worked  misfortune  for  many  classes 
of  the  English  people,  sugar  still  continued  to  be  consumed  at  the 
higher  price,  and  in  increasing  quantities,^  indicates  that  there 

*In  1543  there  is  the  entry  of  the  purchase  of  30  pounds  of  sugar  for 
i8s.,  I*,  e.,  at  a  little  over  jd.  the  pound,  and  in  1545 — only  two  years  later, 
but  the  year  after  Henry's  greatest  debasing  took  place-the  average  price 
per  dozen  pounds  was  i8s.,  making  the  average  for  i  pound  to  is.  6d.,  the 
actual  entries  for  1545  being  is.  Sd.rand  is.  4d.  the  pound.  From  1545  to 
1552  there  is  a  curious  lack  of  entries.  In  1552  sugar  is  quoted  at  is.  id. 
the  pound,  and  the  price  fluctuated  about  this  point  for  many  years  after 
that  date. 

*  The  increase  in  prices  due  to  an  increase  in  the  amount  of  money  in  a 
country  is  brought  about  by  the  fact  that  an  increase  in  the  demand  for  the 
commodities  results  immediately  from  the  increased  purchasing  power  of 
die  consumers.    If,  therefore,  the  price  of  any  specific  commodity  docs 

(72) 


J.A 


must  have  been  a  part  of  the  population  of  considerable  economic 
importance,  who  in  some  way  still  possessed  the  means  to  gratify 
their  desire  for  luxury. 

Every  increase  in  price  indicates  a  change  in  the  ratio  between 
demand  and  supply.  To  understand  thoroughly  the  exact  causes 
and  nature  of  any  such  rise  as  the  one  in  question,  the  various 
conditions  of  consumption  and  production  must  be  investigated. 
Only  thus  can  the  true  nature  of  the  resultant  be  ascertained.  The 
fact  that  in  the  present  case  the  rise  in  prices  was  the  acknowl- 
edged result  of  the  debasement  of  the  currency,  indicates  clearly 
that  it  was  in  the  realm  of  the  demand  for  sugar  as  embodied  in 
purchasing  power  that  the  prime  causes  of  this  especial  change 
were  operative.  The  necessary  process  in  the  solution  of  the  prob- 
lem is,  therefore,  to  examine  the  various  economic  classes  existent 
in  England  at  that  time,  and  to  find  out  what  was  the  state  of  their 
demand,  and  what  influences  were  combining  to  make  it  what  it 
was.  This  done,  it  will  be  a  matter  of  little  difficulty  to  see  how 
these  various  classes  were  affected  by  the  debasement  of  the  cur- 
rency, and  what  part  they  respectively  played  in  giving  character 
to  demand  under  the  changed  circumstances. 

The  first  point  to  be  borne  in  mind  is  that  the  rise  in  prices  was 
general,  not  confined  to  a  few  commodities,  but  affecting  all  alike. 
All  classes  in  England,  therefore,  in  so  far  as  they  were  consumers, 
were  directly  affected  by  the  higher  prices  which  they  were  thus 
obliged  to  pay  for  the  satisfaction  of  their  wants.  The  extent  to 
which  the  various  classes  were  affected,  and  the  sum  total  of  the 

rise  under  such  circumstances  it  is  evident  that  there  has  existed  a 
potential  demand  for  the  good,  beyond  the  effective  demand.  If,  also,  at 
the  same  time  with  the  rising  price,  theiie  is  an  increase  in  the 
amount  consumed,  it  is  evident  that  some  people  are  spending  a  larger 
relative  part  of  their  income  than  formerly  in  purchasing  the  commodity. 
This  is,  in  fact,  what  took  place  in  the  case  of  sugar.  The  price  rose 
quickly  and  decidedly,  and  the  number  of  entries  in  Rogers  grows  more 
numerous  despite  the  higher  price,  indicating  that  more  sugar  was  steadily 
being  Consumed.  For  the  year  1535  there  are  two  entries  in  Rogers,  and 
one  respectively  for  1536  and  1543.  For  1545  there  are  two.  as  also  for 
1552,  and  for  1553.  For  1554  there  are  five;  for  1557  four,  and  for  1558 
and  1559  seven  respectively. 


74 


SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


SUGAR  A  LUXURY  IN   ENGLAND. 


75 


influence  which  the  enhanced  prices  had  upon  their  well-being, 
were  diiferent  for  the  various  economic  classes,  according  as  they 
were  predominantly  consumers  or  producers,  and  according  as,  if 
producers,  they  lived  chiefly  by  agriculture,  industry  or  trade. 

In  setting  forth  the  results  of  the  debasement  of  the  currency  in 
the  sixteenth  century.  Mr.  Rogers  has  mentioned  the  manner  in 
which  the  English  people  were  aflfected.  "In  the  preamble  to  Eliz- 
abeth's first  proclamation  on  the  currency,"  he  says,  "the  loss  of 
the  base  money  is  said  to  fall  principally  on  pensioners,  soldiers 
and  all  hired  servants  and  other  mean  people  who  live  by  any  kind 
of  wages,  and  not  by  rents  of  land  or  trade  of  merchandise."* 
Rogers  objects  to  this  statement  of  Elizabeth,  and  claims  that 
the  landowners  also  suffered  from  the  increase  in  prices,  on 
account  of  fixed  or  customary  rent,  long  leases  for  land  and  other 
things.  According  to  his  version,  therefore,  those  engaged  in 
trade  were  the  only  members  of  English  society  who  did  not  suflfer 
economic  loss  from  Henry *s  tampering  with  the  currency.  This 
conclusion  has  been  reached  purely  by  a  process  of  elimination, 
for  Mr.  Rogers  himself  does  not  mention  what  the  effect  on  the 
trading  classes  was.  In  omitting  to  do  so,  it  may  here  be 
remarked,  he  has  entirely  ignored  what  was  the  key  to  the  whole 
situation  as  to  the  ultimate  influence  of  the  base  money  in  England, 
both  in  general  and  also  with  especial  application  to  the  demand 
for  sugar.  Mr.  Cunningham  declares  that  its  influence  upon  com- 
merce  was  '"a  far  more  important  point  than  appears  in  the  procia- 
mation,"*  inasmuch  as  a  debased  currency  at  home  must  have  disi^^ 
turbed  commercial  relations  with  other  countries  by  making  it 
profitable  for  foreign  merchants  to  come  to  England  to  purchase 
goods  with  base  money,  which  they  themselves  brought  into  the 
realm,  thus  enhancing  the  price  of  foreign  produce  in  England, 
since  under  the  circumstances  it  was  imported  in  much  smaller 
quantities.*  In  this  wav  the  merchants  engaged  in  trade  in  foreign 
wares  felt  the  evil  effects  of  the  debased  currency.    It  is  true,  also, 

■Rogers,  1.  c,  IV,  pp.  191,  192. 
•Cunningham,  1.  c,  II,  Modern  Times,  p.  63,  n.  2. 

•Cunningham,  "Growth  of  English  Industry  and  Commerce,"  1885,  (small 
voltime),  pp.  292,  293. 


•■»  •  f  J 


irt 


-If 


*H    "#  « 


•*■'  .,_»    ^ 


that  domestic  trade  must  have  fallen  off  considerably  at  that  time. 
The  wages  of  labor  did  not  rise  relatively  with  prices,  and  fixed 
incomes  decreased  in  real  value,  so  that  the  general  purchasing 
power  of  society  was  lessened,  and  consumption,  accordingly,  had 
to  be  curtailed. 

In  the  measure  here  indicated  it  is  evident  that  the  mercantile 
classes  did  suffer  along  with  the  others  from  the  debased  currency. 
It  is  also  evident,  however,  that  those  identified  directly  or  re- 
motely with  commercial  enterprise  suffered  much  less  from  this 
cause  than  did  other  economic  groups.  Those  who  sold  the 
goods  whose  prices  were  enhanced  were,  obviously,  in  large  part 
recouped  by  the  extra  amounts  of  money  they  received  from 
sales,  for  the  high  prices  which  they  were  obliged  to  pay  for  what 
they  themselves  bought.® 

The  increased  quantities  of  silver  in  Europe,  by  reason  of  the 
importations  from  America,  were  at  that  time,  also,  redounding 
especially  to  the  profit  of  the  trading  classes,  and  thus  serving  to 
counteract  in  part,  at  least,  whatever  bad  effects  they  were  suffer- 
ing from  the  debased  currency.  'In  mercantile  undertakings," 
says  Mr.  Warner,  '*a  time  of  rising  prices  when  the  rise  is  not  due 
to  a  debased  currency,  is  generally  a  time  of  activity  and  expan- 
sion. Profits  are  high  and  it  is  easy  to  accumulate  capital,  and 
encouraging  to  invest  it,"^  and  again,  "Rising  prices  may  be 
satisfactory  to  those  who  embark  in  commercial  undertakings  and 

•This  relative  advantage  of  the  mercantile  classes  is  well  evidenced  in 
the  "Dialogue  concerning  the  common  weal  of  this  realm  of  England"  of 
1581.  (See  Shaw's  "History  of  Currency,"  1896,  p.  125.)  The  merchant 
in  the  pamphlet  declares :  "We  that  be  merchants  pay  dearer  for  everything 
that  cometh  over  the  sea,  even  by  the  third  part  well.  .  .  .  When  we 
have  thus  bought  dear  outlandish  things,  then  we  have  not  so  good  vent 
of  them  again  as  we  have  had  before  time,  by  reason  there  be  not  so  many 
buyers  for  lack  of  power,  though  indeed  in  such  things  as  we  sell  we 
consider  the  price  we  bought  them  at."  The  Doctor  responds  to  this: 
"I  doubt  not  if  any  men  have  licked  themselves  whole  (J.  e.,  recovered  the 
loss),  you  be  the  same,  for  what  odds  soever  there  happen  to  be  in  exchange 
of  things,  you  that  be  merchants  can  espy  it  anon." 

'  Townsend  Warner,  "Landmarks  in  English  Industrial  History,"  1899, 
p.  174- 


76 


SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


SUGAR  A  LUXURY  IN   ENGLAND. 


77 


gain  the  profits;  but  they  press  hardly  on  those  whose  incomes 
are  fixed  or  change  slowly  and  with  difficulty,  and  in  this  class  are 
the  wage-earners."®  'It  is  undoubtedly  the  case,"  says  Mr.  Cun- 
ningham, "that  a  rise  of  nominal  prices,  and  a  fall  of  the  value 
of  bullion  favors  the  mercantile  classes,  and  gives  a  stimulus  to 
industrial  activity  at  the  expense  of  rentiers  of  all  kinds."* 

From  this  it  becomes  clear  that  we  should  look  to  the  mercantile 
classes  in  England  at  that  time  for  an  explanation  of  the  fact  that 
sugar,  a  luxury  inaccessible  to  the  many,  continued  to  be  con- 
sumed at  an  advanced  price  and  in  increased  amounts.    If  these 
men,  who  suffered  least  in  the  general  economic  depression,  were 
numerous  enough  and  wealthy  enough  to  keep  up  the  effective 
demand  for  sugar,  then  the  phenomena  above  referred  to  are 
already  explained.    No  proof  is  needed  of  the  importance  of  the 
commercial  classes  in  England  at  that  date.    The  accumulation  of 
moneyed  wealth  in  the  merchants'  hands  was  the  characteristic 
feature  of  social  life  in  Tudor  times,  and  these  men  were  in 
consequence  becoming  the  dominant  economic  force  in  England. 
''Merchants  and  manufacturers,"  says  Professor  Andrews,  "were 
becoming  more  important  than  landholders  and  agricultural  labor- 
ers, and  were  controlling  the  policy  of  the  government.""    These 
"rich    burgesses"    were    thus    occupying    the    position    of    the 
moneyed  classes"  of  England,  and  were  using  the  means  at  their 
disposal  in  procuring  satisfaction  for  their  various  desires.    The 
sensory  wants  under  these  circumstances  were  not  neglected,  and 
these  "merchants  and  manufacturers"  became,  as  Mr.  Cunning-/' 
ham  remarks,  the  "chief  consumers"  as  well  as  the  chief  purveyors 
of  those  "foreign  goods,""  among  which  sugar  then  occupied  so 
important  a  place." 

■  Warner,  I  c,  p.  175. 
•  Ctinningham,  1.  c,  (small  vol.)  p.  296. 
*C.  M.  Andrews,  "History  of  England,"  1903,  p.  303. 
Cunningham,  1.  c,  (small  vol.)  p.  293. 

The  extent  to  which  luxury  was  indulged  in  in  the  sixteenth  century 
by  these  classes  in  England  is  well  shown  in  two  quotations  from  Ander- 
son for  that  year.   (Anderson,  1.  c,  II,  p.  140.)     The  first  one  he  took 


ts 


If 


11 


IS 


''^W 


.«« 


There  was  another  class  of  people  in  England  in  the  early 
sixteenth  century  who,  though  originally  not  identified  with  the 
mercantile  interests,  were  still  at  this  time  closely  in  touch  with 
them,  and  whose  wealth  was  increasing  by  reason  of  the  activity 
of  the  merchants.  These  were  the  landholders,  who  at  that  time 
were  universally  enclosing  their  lands  and  putting  them  to  sheep 
farming.  The  advantage  of  these  people  was  two-fold :  first,  they 
shared,  as  sellers  of  their  wool,  in  the  relative  advantage  of  the 
strictly  trading  classes,  attendant  upon  the  general  rise  in  prices 
from  the  debasement  of  the  currency  and  the  discovery  of 
American  silver;  and,  secondly,  they  had  also  an  extra  return 
from  the  high  prices  that  were  being  offered  for  wool,  independent 
of  the  general  rise. 

This  enclosure  system  was  not  to  escape  the  all-pervading 
activity  of  the  commercial  classes  in  England,  for  very  soon  after 
it  started,  and  the  great  profits  it  yielded  became  evident,  mer- 
chants began  to  seek  here  investment  for  their  accumulated 
capital.  The  result  was  that  to  a  large  extent  the  old  landed 
nobility  in  England  gave  place  to  the  new  regime  of  capital,  and 
the  country-side  as  well  as  the  towns  became  subject  to  its  power. 
Professor  Andrews  writes  of  this  transformation  as  follows : 

from  "a  treatise  in  Sir  Robert  Cotton's  'Remains,'  p.  196,  published  in 
1651,  being  an  essay  first  written  in  1609."  "He  observes,"  says  Anderson. 
"'that  in  the  year  1573  there  was  brought  in  an  immeasurable  use  of 
luxurious  commodities  in  England,  as  wines,  spices,  silk  and  fine  linen; 
for  of  the  latter  sort  of  above  ten  groats  the  ell  there  is  above  three 
hundred  and  sixty  thousand  pounds  yearly  spent,  which  is  half  the  value 
of  our  woolen  cloths  exported ;  and  maketh  the  state  to  buy  more  than  they 
do  sell;  whereas  a  good  father  of  a  family  ought  to  be  vctidacem,  a  seller, 
not  emacem,  a  buyer.'"  The  second  quotation  is  from  Camden  in  his 
"History  of  Queen  Elizabeth."  "Under  the  year  1574,"  says  Ander- 
son, "(he)  says  the  people  (by  which  he  meant  the  rich)  wore 
silks  glittering  with  gold  and  silver,  either  embroidered  or  laced,  which  it 
seems  the  Queen  in  vain  endeavored  by  her  proclamation  to  restrain,  and  to 
oblige  people  to  conform  to  a  prescribed  rule.  Feasting  also  was  much  in 
fashion  at  this  time ;  also  great  improvements  were  made  in  buildings,  and 
more  noblemen's  and  gentlemen's  country-seats  were  re-edified,  in  greater 
beauty  and  largeness  than  had  ever  before  been  known.  'And  certainly,* 
says  he,  'to  the  great  ornament  of  the  kingdom  through  to  the  decay  of 
hospitality.'  All  which,  however,  when  rightly  considered,  was  no  other 
than  the  natural  effects  of  our  increasing  riches  and  commerce." 


78 


SUGAR  AS   A   COMMODITY. 


"Since  the  accession  of  Henry  VII  the  enclosure  movement 
has  taken  on  a  new  form.  While  the  old  manorial  system  was 
breaking  down  and  trade  was  growing,  thousands  of  acres  were 
passing  out  of  the  hands  of  the  old  nobility  into  the  hands  of 
newer  men,  merchants  and  the  members  of  the  new  nobility,  who 
were  getting  profit  out  of  them  without  regard  to  the  condition 
of  the  people  upon  them.  The  old  manorial  lords  were  giving 
place  to  a  class  of  landlords  who  racked  the  tenantry,  evicted 
those  who  failed  to  pay  their  rents,  enlarged  their  estates  by 
buying  up  new  lands,  and  enclosed  the  commons  and  arable  fields 
without  any  consideration  for  those  who  tilled  the  soil  for  a  living. 
In  consequence,  rents  rose,  prices  trebled  and  misery  increased."" 

Further  than  this  one  need  not  go  in  the  search  for  the  reasons 
why  the  effective  demand  for  sugar,  even  at  its  enhanced  price,  was 
maintained,  and  at  an  increasing  ratio,  during  the  latter  sixteenth 
century.  The  secret  of  the  situation  is  found  in  the  fact  that  the 
owners  of  purchasing  power  in  England  were  not  so  seriously 
affected  by  the  economic  crisis  as  to  be  forced  to  give  up  their 
consumption  of  the  good  things  of  life.  The  merchants  and  the 
landholders  who  were  raising  sheep,  and  selling  the  wool  at  a 
greatly  enhanced  price,  had  been  the  chief  consumers  of  sugar 
before  Henry's  debasement  began,  and  these  men  were  those  who 
under  the  changed  conditions  were  still  most  able  to  enjoy  it,  even 
at  its  higher  price.  The  rising  prices  resulting  from  the  base 
money  fell  less  hardly  on  these  moneyed  classes  than  on  the  other 
ranks  of  society,  while  the  increasing  amounts  of  silver  fron^, 
America,  and  the  consequent  effects  in  England  in  a  general 
enhancement  of  prices,  worked  directly  in  their  favor. 

*•  C.  M.  Andrews,  "History  of  England,"  1903,  p.  272. 


»•*! 


^'    A  r 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

English  Cui^tivation  of  the  Cane. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  the  mercantile  element  in  England, 
and  the  allied  groups  of  the  population,  have  been  regarded 
exclusively  as  consumers  in  creating  through  the  wealth  they 
owned  an  effective  demand  for  sugar.  This,  however,  was  by  no 
means  their  most  important  function  in  society,  for  even  while 
they  were  consuming  a  part  of  her  finished  products,  they  were 
acting  at  the  same  time  as  the  chief  producers  of  her  wealth.  In 
their  capacity  as  consumers  they  were  seeking  direct  gratification 
for  their  organic  and  sensory  wants,  but  with  the  accumulation  of 
their  capital  the  prestige  wants  asserted  themselves,  and  these 
wants  could  be  assuaged  only  by  productive  activity.  The  mer- 
chants, therefore,  began  to  demand  investment  for  their  capital^ 
and  the  era  of  colonization  and  plantation  in  America,  under  the 
direction  of  English  merchants  and  merchant  companies,  was  the 
inevitable  consequence.  The  interests  of  these  men,  moreover, 
became  so  powerful  in  England,  that  the  class  as  a  whole  finally 
gave  its  name  to  the  English  national  policy  which  was  formu- 
lated and  made  articulate  as  the  Mercantile  System.  Moreover, 
just  as  these  individuals  and  companies  were  looking  to  America 
for  opportunity  to  invest  their  wealth,  and  so  to  increase  their 
individual  prestige,  so  from  the  national  point  of  view  colonization 
in  the  New  World  offered  the  opportunity  for  realizing  the  main 
objects  of  the  Mercantile  System,  and  so  for  advancing  national 
power,  which  is  natural  prestige.  "Whatever  the  nature  of  the 
'economic  man,' "  says  Egerton,  "prestige  will  always  be  dear  to 
nations  no  less  than  to  individuals."^  With  national  and  indi- 
vidual interests  thus  at  one,  the  planting  of  the  American  shores 
was  the  natural  result. 

*  H.  E.  Egerton,  "Short  History  of  British  Colonial  Policy,"  1897,  p.  5- 

(79) 


i  \ ' 


SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


ENGLISH  CULTIVATION  01^  THE  CANE. 


8 1 


Elizabeth  came  to  the  throne  with  clear  realization  of  the 
economic  condition  of  her  realm.  Her  eyes  were  not  dimmed 
to  the  great  importance  of  her  mercantile,  wealth-producing 
classes,  nor  to  the  fact  that  by  a  wise  fostering  of  these  commercial 
interests  she  could  eventually  raise  England  to  a  place  of  equality 
surely,  and  to  one  of  predominance  probably,  among  the  nations 
of  Europe.  To  accomplish  this  all  the  phases  of  the  mercantile 
policy  had  to  be  carefully  guarded,  and  if  this  were  done  the 
interests  of  the  merchants  themselves  would  be  assured.  The 
echoes  of  the  national  policy  are  to  be  noticed  in  contemporary 
documents  bearing  on  the  exploring  and  colonizing  movement, 
and  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  in  these  documents,  too,  the  personal 
interests  of  the  merchants  are  not  left  unexpressed.  In  dis- 
courses on  the  subject,  the  profit  "to  the  whole  realme  in  generall" 
is  commonly  set  forth  alongside  of  the  "particular  profit  of  all 
adventurers."* 

In  the  methods,  also,  that  are  set  forth,  by  which  these  adven- 
turers might  grow  rich  in  the  New  World,  sugar  planting  is  early 
suggested— long,  indeed,  before  any  actual  attempts  at  its  culti- 
vation  were  made  by  the  English  planters.  This  was  but  natural, 
for  in  this  form  of  productive  activity  there  was  an  opportunity 
to  obtain  gratification  at  once  for  the  two  demands  then  so  pow- 
erful in  England,  to  wit,  the  desire  on  the  part  of  the  English 
people  for  sensory  gratification  and  pleasure,  and  the  desire  on  the 
part  of  the  moneyed  classes  for  successful  investment,  and  so  for 
prestige  and  distinction.  These  early  allusions  to  sugar  testify  to 
the  place  that  it  held  among  English  utilities  at  the  end  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  In  the  directions  given  "to  certaine  Gentlemen 
that  went  with  Mr.  Frobisher  in  his  Northwest  discoveries" 
Hakluyt  admonishes  them  as  follows : 

"And  (this  seat  is  to  be  chosen)  for  the  possessing  of  mines  of  golde, 
of  silver,  of  copper,  quicksilver,  or  of  any  such  precious  thing,  the  wants  of 
those  needful  things  may  be  supplied  from  some  other  place  by  sea,  .  .  . 
Or  if  the   soyle   shall  yield   Figges,   Almonds,    Sugar   Canes,   Quinces, 

*"Hakluyt's  Voyages,"  published  1904  by  James  MacLehose  &  Sons, 
Glasgow,  *'A  discourse  of  the  necessitie  and  commoditie  of  planting  English 
Colonies  upon  the  North  partes  of  America,"  VIII,  p.  89. 


♦  *«, 


4't     t'i 


'» 


m 


Iti^. 


I  1 


Oranges,  Lemonds,  Potatos  &c  there  may  arise  some  trade  and  traffique 
by  Figs,  Almonds,  Sugar,  Marmelade,  Sucket,  &c."' 

In  his  "Discourse  on  Western  Planting"  Hakluyt  also  adds  as 
a  remedy  for  England's  surplus  population,  that  they  be  sent  "for 
certen  yeres  in  the  westerne  parts,  especially  in  Newfoundland, 
.  .  .  and  in  the  more  southerne  partes  in  setting  them  to  work 
in  mynes  of  golde  silver  copper  leade  and  yron,  in  dragging 
for  perles  and  currall,  in  plantinge  of  sugar  canf^s  as  the  Portu- 
gales  have  done  in  Madera."* 

The  colonial  energy  of  Great  Britain  in  the  Western  Hemis- 
phere was  in  its  first  ventures  directed  exclusively  toward  the 
more  northerly  parts  of  North  America.  Sporadic  expeditions 
did  touch  at  the  West  India  Islands,  but  they  did  not  in  the 
earlier  years  result  in  any  permanent  occupancy.  The  first 
attempts  at  colonizing  the  English  West  Indies  belong  to  the 
first  quarter  of  the  seventeenth  century.  The  first  land  in  these 
islands  that  was  claimed  for  the  English  crown  was  on  the  island 
of  Barbados,  and  it  is  significant  that  it  was  here,  also,  that  the 
first  sugar  cane  was  planted  by  English  settlers. 

Barbados  was  discovered  first  by  the  Spaniards,  who,  as  did  also 
the  Portuguese,  visited  the  island  in  the  early  sixteenth  century. 
The  first  English  vessel  touched  there  in  1605,  and  its  master  and 
crew  took  possession  of  the  country  by  erecting  a  cross  upon  the 
spot  where  a  city  later  was  built.  In  the  bark  of  a  tree  which 
stood  near  they  cut  the  words  "James  K  of  E  and  this  island." 
No  settlement  was  effected  on  Barbados  until  1625,  when  Cour- 
teen,  a  Dutch  merchant  with  interests  in  England,  fitted  out  a 
colonizing  expedition  thither  under  the  patronage  of  the  Earl  of 
Mariborough,  to  whom  the  King  granted  the  island.  The  claim  to 
Barbados  was  in  the  succeeding  years  the  subject  of  much  dis- 
pute and  many  rivalries,  for  the  English  kings  granted  it  away 
to  one  petitioner  after  another,  with  no  regard  to  previous 
patents  or  charters.  The  result  is  an  almost  hopelessly  complex 
set  of  documents  on  the  subject. 

•  "Hakluyt's  Voyages,"  edited  by  Edmund  Goldsind,  1889,  I,  pp.  109  sq. 

*  "Hakluyt's  Voyages,"  edited  by  Edmund  Goldsind,  1889,  II,  p.  194. 


I  •. 


o9 


SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


Meanwhile  the  planting  of  Barbados  went  steadily  on.  The 
earliest  settlers  put  themselves  to  raising  cotton  and  tobacco. 
Their  success  in  this  was  not  great,  however,  and  the  early  years 
of  Barbados  bore  but  little  promise  of  its  future  greatness,  "of  all," 
to  quote  Charles  Kingsley,  "the  wealth  and  commerce  and  beauty 
and  science  which  has  in  later  centuries  made  that  lovely  isle  the 
gem  of  all  the  tropic  seas."'*  "The  tobacco,"  says  Ligon,  "was 
worthless  and  earthy,  and  they  lingered  on  in  a  lamentable  con- 
dition."® "But  when,"  he  goes  on  to  say,  "their  sugar  canes  had 
been  planted  three  or  four  years,  they  found  that  to  be  the  prin- 
cipal plant  to  improve  the  value  of  the  whole  island,  and  so  bent  all 
their  endeavors  to  advance  their  knowledge  in  planting  and 
making  sugar,  which  knowledge,  though  they  studied  hard,  was 
long  a-leaming."^ 

According  to  Ligon,  sugar  was  introduced  into  Barbados  from 
Brazil  in  about  1641.  The  methods  of  cultivating  and  boiling  it 
were  teamed  also  from  Dutch  planters  in  that  country,  and 
although,  as  he  says,  this  knowledge  came  but  slowly,  still  in  1650 
the  island  was  on  a  fair  way  to  prosperity.  From  that  time  on 
for  many  years  the  English  continued  to  gather  to  themselves 
the  monopoly  of  the  sugar  plantations,  as  they  had  already 
acquired  that  of  the  refining  industry.  This  process  had  advanced 
at  such  strides  by  the  end  of  the  centur>-  that  Sir  Dalby  Thomas 
was  led  to  declare  in  unfeigned  admiration : 

"Invention  in  Barbados  has  proceeded  so  fast  and  so  far  for  planting, 
pressing,  boiling,  separating  and  cleansing  cane,  as  well  as  for  drawing 
excellent  spirits  from  molasses,  .  .  .  that  now  the  English  exceed  all 
nations  of  the  World  in  regard  to  Cane.  The  Pleasure,  Glory  and  Grandeur 
of  England  has  been  advanced  more  by  sugar  than  by  any  other  com- 
modity, wool  not  excepted.' 


n  8 


•N.  Darnell  Davis,  "Cavaliers  and  Roundheads  of  Barbadoes,"   1887, 
p.  39.    Quoted  from  "Westward  Ho."  Chapter  XVII,  Charles  Kingsley. 
•Ligon,  "A  True  and  Exact  History  of  the  Island  of  Barbados,"  1673, 

*  Ligon,  1.  c,  p.  24. 

•Sir  Dalby  Thomas,  "Historical  Account  of  the  Rise  and  Growth 
of  the  West  India  Collonies  and  of  the  Great  Advantages  They  are  to 
England  in  Respect  to  Trade,"  London,  1690,  printed  in  the  Harleian 
Miscellany,  London,  1808-1813,  11,  p.  365. 


'1 


•'!» 


/      ■ 


*- 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

The  English  Sugar  Trade. 

England's  next  care,  after  her  sugar  plantations  in  the  West 
Indies  were  assured,  was  to  secure  for  herself  the  monopoly  of 
the  carrying  trade  in  sugar.    During  the  days  of  the  Spanish  and 
Portuguese  supremacy  in  the  sugar  world  Portuguese  vessels 
had,  as  already  shown,  managed  the  transportation  of  sugar  from 
the  various  plantations  chiefly  to  Lisbon,  and  Dutch  ships  had 
performed  the  service  of  distributing  it  thence  to  the  various  ports 
of  Europe.    The  Dutch  early  extended  their  commercial  activity 
to  the  western  world,  their  possession  of  Brazil  from  1624  to  1654 
giving  them  strong  foothold  in  the  sugar  regions  there.     When 
the  English  started  their  plantations  in  the  tropics,  therefore,  the 
Dutch  immediately  included  them  among  their  clientele,  and  for 
many  years  Dutch  vessels  furnished  by  far  the  most  of  the  com- 
munication among  the  colonies,  and  between  America  and  Europe. 
From  their  busy  trading  center  at  Curasao,"  says  Woodward, 
(they)   conducted  nearly  the  whole  of  the  inter-colonial  trade 
of  America,  and  supplied  both  English  and  French  settlements 
with  European  produce.    The  sugar  trade  between  America  and 
Europe  was  almost  entirely  in  their  hands."^ 

The  Dutch  carriers  offered  the  English  sugar  planters  much 
more  favorable  terms  than  did  the  vessels  of  their  own  country, 
and  it  was,  therefore,  against  these  odds  that  England  was  forced 
to  struggle  in  her  attempts  to  win  this  trade  for  herself.  "The 
colonists,"  says  Darnell  Davis,  referring  to  this  period,  "now 
prospered  mightily,  the  Dutch  giving  them  credit  almost  ad 
libitum  and  supplying  them  with  negroes,  for  whom  payment 
was  not  required  until  these  laborers  had  planted  canes  for  a 
crop,  and  that  crop  had  been  reaped  and  converted  into  sugar. 

*  Woodward,  "The  Expansion  of  the  British  Empire,"  1902,  p.  115. 

(83) 


(( 


t( 


■ 


I 


04 


SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


THE  ENGUSH   SUGAR  TRADE. 


85 


When  the  Civil  War  broke  out  in  England,  the  Dutch  managed 
nearly  the  whole  trade  of  the  English  West  India  colonies,  and 
thus  they  furnished  the  Barbadian  planters  not  only  with  negroes, 
but  also  with  coppers,  stills,  and  every  other  appliance  needed  by 
the  ingenios,  and  also  with  the  ordinary  requisites  of  life."=*  ' 

The  rigorous  policy    of    the  English   Navigation  Acts   was 
adopted  in  large  measure  in  order  to  drive  the  Dutch  from  this 
inter-colonial  commerce,  and  from  their  European  coasting  trade 
in  so  far  as  England  was  concerned.    In  the  Navigation  Act  of 
1660  sugar  holds  the  first  place  among  the  so-called  "enumerated 
articles"  which  were  thenceforth  to  be  exported  only  to  England, 
Ireland  or  to  some  other  of  His  Majesty's  plantations,  and  only 
in  English,  Irish  or  plantation-built  ships,  "owned  by  EngHshmen, 
and  whereof  the  Master  and  three-fourths  of  the  Marriners  at 
least  are  English."    This  act  had  in  great  measure  the  desired 
effect  in  driving  out  the  Dutch  from  the  inter-colonial  trade,  and 
England  was  soon  enabled  to  assert  her  mastery.    The  enormous 
increase  in  sugar  production  on  the  English  islands  after  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  threw  always  more  and  more 
of  the  sugar  trade  into  the  hands  of  whoever  might  have  the 
monopoly  between  the  West  Indies  and  England.     The  fact, 
therefore,  that  the  Navigation  Acts  were  bringing  that  trade  to 
the  English,  gave  these  people  an  ever  expanding  advantage,  and 
in  the  course  of  a  few  years  the  balance  had  swung  decidedly  to 
their  favor.    Long  before  the  dawning  of  the  eighteenth  century  . 

■  Darnell  Davis,  1.  c,  pp.  70,  7i. 

*  In  a  letter  written  on  October  19.  1651,  from  Sir  George  Ayscue,  sent 
to  subdue  Barbados,  to  Lord  President  Bradshaw,  there  is  the  following 
statement :  "Made  the  Island  of  Barbados  over  night,  and  the  next  morn- 
ing surprised  in  the  bay  15  sail,  most  of  them  Dutch."  From  this  an  idea 
may  be  gained  of  the  great  part  played  by  the  Dutch  in  Barbados  trade. 
(Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Colonial,  1574-1660,  p.  362.)  And  in  a  report 
from  Governor  Dan  Searle  (Ibid.,  p.  390)  to  the  Council  of  State  there  is 
the  following  statement  pointing  to  the  Dutch  activity:  "Sends  by  the 
Endeavour,  one  of  the  prize  ships,  Capt  Robt.  Story,  commander,  an 
account  of  the  prize  goods.  Their  trade  was  most  of  all  carried  on  by 
the  Dutch,  but  since  the  late  Act  of  Navigation  there  has  been  some 
scarcity  and  want  of  commodities." 


r'f   It 


the  English  succeeded  in  winning  for  themselves  the  monopoly  in 
the  production  of  sugar  values  in  exchange  just  as  she  already 
possessed  them  in  the  cultivation  of  the  cane  and  the  refining  of 
its  product,  so  that  thenceforth  for  many  years,  England  was 
rightly  the  center  of  the  sugar  industry  of  the  world. 

At  the  close  of  the  period  with  which  I  am  here  dealing,  the 
English  star  was  still  in  the  ascendant,  although  its  light  was 
beginning  to  be  threatened  by  that  of  another  luminary,  in  whom 
before  many  years  the  chief  brightness  of  the  sugar  world  was 
to  center.  For  the  present  work,  however,  interest  centers  in 
the  English  at  home  and  abroad.  Within  the  time  limits  it 
includes  the  last  great  step  in  the  production  of  sugar  values  was 
taken. 

With  production  thus  centering  in  England  it  was  but  natural 
that  the  most  characteristic  phenomena  of  consumption  for  this 
period  should  also  occur  there.  The  English  industry  in  the 
West  India  Islands  was  producing  great  quantities  of  cane  and 
grinding  it  to  make  muscovadoes,  which  muscovadoes  English 
vessels  were  transporting  to  England,  where  English  capital  was 
refining  them  into  the  finished  product.  In  this  way  there  was 
furnished  to  the  English  consumer  a  supply  always  increasing, 
and  a  chance  was  offered  him  to  expand  his  consumption.  Along 
with  this  increased  supply  there  was  a  demand  that  was  always 
expanding,  not  only  in  natural  ratio  with  the  growth  of  population 
and  of  wealth,  but  in  an  accelerated  rate,  because  of  additional 
circumstances.  From  the  supply  side,  also,  subsidiary  causes  were 
at  work  in  determining  more  exactly  the  actual  amount  of  sugar 
that  was  put  on  the  English  market.  It  is  to  the  tracing  of  this 
process  of  the  expanding  consumption  of  sugar  among  the 
English  people  that  the  remaining  part  of  this  work  is  to  be 
devoted. 

The  various  stages  of  the  process  were  marked  by  the  reciprocal 
action  of  changing  conditions  of  supply  and  demand,  and  each 
stage  was  characterized  by  the  specific  circumstances  of  the 
moment.  Amid  all  fluctuations,  however,  one  general  tendency 
was  evident,  and  one  single  direction  of  events  asserted  itself. 


i 


V^  Jf  '«a^ 


■■■I 


■IH 


oO 


SUGAR  AS  A   COMMODITY. 


Tlie  price  of  sugar  was  falling,  and  its  consumption  was  spreading 
rapidly  among  the  English  people.  By  the  end  of  the  period  sugar 
had  passed  well  out  from  among  the  luxuries  and  was  regarded 
by  increasingly  greater  numbers  as  necessary  to  comfort  and 
happiness. 


— y' 


n  ■■m   h> 


r\\ 


If 


CHAPTER    XV. 

The  Demand  for  English  Sugar. 

In  large,  it  may  be  said  that  the  price  of  sugar  declined  con- 
stantly throughout  the  seventeenth  century.  Fluctuations  appear 
at  times,  but  the  general  tendency  is  undoubtedly  in  a  downward 
direction.^  The  conclusion  that  must  be  drawn  from  this  is 
obvious,  namely,  that  during  the  century  the  consumption  of 
sugar  was  spreading  steadily  among  the  English  people.  As  its 
price  continued  to  fall,  those  who  up  to  that  time  had  been  obliged 
to  rank  it  among  their  luxuries  for  feast  days  and  the  like,  were 
enabled  to  enjoy  it  on  common  days  at  the  regular  family  board, 
while  many  who  perhaps  had  never  been  able  to  expend  money  for 
such  a  superfluity  could  now  raise  it  to  a  place  among  their  utili- 
ties.   "C'est  au  dix— septieme  siecle,"  says  Figuier,  "grace  aux 

*  A  list  of  prices  taken  from  Rogers,  as  nearly  as  possible  a  decade  apart, 
show  figures  gradually  diminishing,  as  follows : 

For  1600,  the  cheapest  quotation  is  is.  6d.  per  pound  for  sugar,  2s.  being 
the  price  of  "fine"  sugar  for  that  year. 

In  161 0,  the  prices  for  "sugar"  range  from  is.  lod.  per  pound  to  is.  2d. 

per  pound. 

In  1620,  the  highest  price  quoted  is  is.  6d.  for  "refined  sugar,"  while 
the  prices  of  "sugar"  unqualified  range  anywhere  from  is.  2j^d.  to 
IS.  per  pound— in  one  case  only  iid.  being  paid  for  the  so-called  "kitchen 

sugar." 

For  1630,  Mr.  Rogers  quotes'  no  prices,  but  in  1631  is.  8d.  is  the  regular 
price  for  "fine"  sugar,  and  is.  4d.  or  is.  3d.  for  "ordinary"  sugar. 

In  1641,  the  price  of  "sugar"  is  about  is.  2d.  or  is.  id.  per  pound;  while— 

1650  shows  three  entries  at  is.  6d.,  is.  sd.  and  is.  6d.,  respectively. 

For  1661,  the  prices  are  lod.  and  Qd.  per  pound,  and  for  1675,  9Hd. 
and  lo^d.  for  sugar-loaf  by  the  pound. 

In  1685,  sugar  is  selling  at  8d.  and  7d.  per  pound,  and  in  1690  at  6d.,  7d. 
and  8d.  per  pound. 

In  1699,  "fine"  sugar  is  quoted  at  7d.,  and  "sugar"  at  6d.  per  pound, 
while  1700  shows  "double-refined"  loaf  sugar  at  is.  2d.  per  pound,  and 
"fine  powder"  sugar  as  low  as  gd.— Rogers,  1.  c.  Vol.  VI. 

87 


oo 


SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


THE  DEMAND  FOR  ENGLISH  SUGAR. 


S9 


envois  d'Amerique  que  le  sucre  entra  dans  les  habitudes  de  la  vie 
domestique,  et  devint  chez  tons  les  peuples  de  I'Europe  une  sub- 
stance de  premiere  necessite.^ 

Mr.  Rogers  testifies  also  to  the  increasing  consumption  of  sugar 
in  his  remarks  upon  the  greater  quantities,  as  compared  with  the 
earlier  era  in  which  it  was  bought  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  "The  growing  cheapness  of  sugar,"  he  says,  "is  further 
illustrated  by  the  quantities,  now  much  larger,  by  which  it  is 
bought.  In  the  earlier  times  rich  people  bought  it  by  the  pound, 
or  at  most  by  the  loaf,  a  loaf  of  sugar  being  a  favorite  present  to 
a  distinguished  personage.  Even  such  an  opulent  person  as  Lord 
Spencer  buys  stocks  of  sugar  by  the  loaf,  though  on  two  occasions, 
1613,  1614,  the  weight  of  twenty  loaves  bought  is  given.  In  1664 
it  is  first  bought  (and  without  the  designation  of  loaves),  by  the 
hundredweight  at  eighty-four  shillings.  It  is  again  purchased  in 
the  same  manner  in  1679."*  "There  is  no  doubt,"  he  declares, 
"that  as  the  supply  of  sugar  was  increased  the  demand  for  the 
produce  was  increased  also.  Tea  and  chocolate  and  coffee  became 
in  the  last  forty  years  of  the  century  common  and  favorite  bev- 
erages, and  the  use  of  sugar  to  sweeten  them  was  as  general  as 
the  consumption  was."* 

The  influence  of  the  use  of  chocolate  upon  that  of  sugar  has 
already  been  dealt  with  at  length."  Although  cocoa  was  intro- 
duced into  Spain  and  the  southern  countries  soon  after  the  dis- 
covery of  America,  its  use  does  not  seem  to  have  reached  England 
until  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century.  In  the  decade 
between  1650  and  1660  the  consumption  of  chocolate  spread 
extensively  in  England,  as  is  proven  by  the  record  of  its  importa- 
tion into  English  ports  and  of  the  widespread  cultivation  of  the 
cacao  tree  in  the  English  West  India  Islands.  As  early  as  1658 
there  is  the  account  of  a  receipt  of  Captain  John  Wentworth  for 
"seven  puncheons  of  cocoa  laden  on  board  the  states'  ship  Paul 
of  William  Dalyson,  to  be  delivered  to  Robert  Blackborne,  Secre- 

•  Figuier,  I.  c,  II,  p.  13. 

•  Rogers,  I  c,  V,  p.  463. 

•  Rogers,  I  c,  V,  p.  462. 
■  See  ante,  pp.  56  sq. 


¥\\ 


tary  to  the  Commissioners  of  the  Admiralty  at  Whitehall  or  his 

assigns.  * 

In  the  same  year  it  is  recorded  that  the  inhabitants  of  Jamaica 
w^ere  busily  engaged  in  clearing  cocoa  walks.^  Cacao  was  indeed 
at  that  time  the  chief  commodity  of  that  island,  and  for  several 
years  to  come  the  main  source  of  her  wealth.®  Its  economic 
importance  as  a  commodity  may  be  seen  in  the  fact  that  it  was 
then  commonly  employed  in  that  island  as  a  measilte  of  values, 
and,  in  so  far  as  actual  fines  were  sometimes  payed  in  cacao,  as  a 
medium  of  exchange.** 

In  1668  Sir  James  Modyford  declared  cacao  to  be  the  "best 
commodity  of  the  island  (Jamaica),"  adding  that  "neither  sugar 
nor  indigo  will  turn  to  account  nearly  so  well."^'*    In  1670  there 

•Calendar  of   State   Papers,   Colonial,   1574-1674,  Addenda;    1675- 1676. 

p.  122. 
'Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Colonial,  i574-i674»  Addenda;  1675-1676,  p. 

125. 

•  The  Calendar  of  State  Papers  furnishes  three  separate  entries  of  expor- 
tation of  cacao  from  Jamaica  to  England  in  the  year  1660.  The  first 
(Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Colonial.  1574-1674,  Addenda;  1675-1676,  p. 
132)  is  of  5,000  pounds;  the  second  {Ibid.,  p.  134).  of  12.400  pounds, 
"which,"  adds  the  account,  "will  yield  far  greater  sum  than  he  is  engaged 
for,"  and  the  third  {Ibid.,  p.  135).  of  4.000  pounds. 

"In  an  order  of  the  Government  and  Council  of  Jamaica  of  June  18, 
1661,  we  read  that  "sugar  shall  pass  at  25  shillings  per  cwt.,  and  cocoa  at 
4  pence  the  pound."  (Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Colonial.  1661-1668,  p. 
37.)  Another  entry  for  October  10,  1662,  mentions  this  same  custom.  It 
is  the  account  of  a  proclamation  of  Governor  Lord  Windsor  to  the  effect 
"that  on  account  of  the  scarcity  of  money  and  in  accordance  with  the 
practice  of  Barbadoes  and  other  plantations,  sugar  shall  pass  current  at 
3  pence  per  pound,  and  cocoa  at  4  pence  per  pound."  {Ibid.,  p.  in.)  That 
cocoa  was  thus  adopted  as  a  measure  of  the  value  of  other  commodities, 
and  in  many  cases  as  the  actual  form  in  which  paymentss  were  made, 
indicates  much  for  its  general  desirability  at  that  time,  not  only  among 
the  inhabitants  of  Jamaica  itself,  but  among  the  people  of  the  mother 
country  as  well.  In  April,  1666,  "Don  Juan  Ximenes  de  Bahorgues  desired 
Sir  Thomas  Modyford  to  send  to  London  what  belonged  to  himself  in 
pieces  of  eight  bills  or  in  cocoa  and  sugar  assigned  to  Giles  Lydcotte/* 
indicating  obviously  that  for  the  cocoa  thus  consigned  there  would  be 
sure  and  ready  sale.     {Ibid.,  p.  374) 

"  Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Colonial,  1661-1668,  p.  551. 


9^ 


SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


were  in  Jamaica  "forty-seven  cocoa  walks,  yielding  one  hundred 
and  eighty-eight  thousand  pounds  of  nuts,  in  seasonable  years  in 
these  improving,""  while  in  a  "Summary  Prospect  (written  in 
the  same  year)  of  the  advantages  and  conveniences  capable  to 
arise  to  His  Majesty  from  the  planting  of  Jamaica)"  we  read: 

"As  to  the  commodities,  as  no  island  abounds  in  cacao  more  than 
Jamaica,  it  is  easy,  with  good  management,  to  beat  out  the  Spaniard, 
which  commodity  is  not  only  exceedingly  valued  (as  it  is  ready  money  in 
Spain.  France,  Flanders,  Holland  and  England)  but  is  greatly  growing  in 
request,  and  the  profit  is  such  that  if  it  keeps  up  but  the  moiety  of  its 
price  it  will  be  of  far  more  gain  to  the  planter  than  indigo,  ginger,  cotton 
or  sugar.  Wherefore  if  sugar  has  raised  our  plantations  to  far  greater 
vilue  than  most  plantations  in  the  world,  what  may  we  expect  cacao  may 
do  if  once  strenuously  followed;  and  if  Barbadoes  have  risen  to  be  so 
rich  by  sugar  alone  where  land  is  dear,  and  cattle,  provisions  and  wood 
scarce,  what  may  Jamaica  arrive  to  where  all  these  are  in  plenty?"" 

The  various  references  here  quoted  speak  for  themselves  with 
regard  to  the  growing  popularity  of  cocoa  in  England  in  the  latter 
half  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

Cocoa  was  not,  however,  despite  this  popularity,  to  become 
England^s  "national  beverage."  This  place  was  reserved  for  the 
eastern  concoctioos  coffee  and  tea.  "Coffee  and  tea,"  Payne  tells 
us,  "were  more  easily  prepared,  required  no  admixture  of  other 
ingredients  and  proved  better  suited  than  chocolate  to  the  taste 
of  the  people  of  Northern  Europe."^®  Certain  it  is  that  in  a  few 
decades  the  consumption  of  cocoa  in  England  was  far  outstripped 
by  that  of  coffee  and  tea,  both  of  which  were  introduced  into 
England  almost  at  the  same  time  as  was  cocoa. 

Coffee  was  first  taken  to  England  in  about  the  year  1650,  the 
first  public  coffee-house  being  opened  in  London  in  1652  by  a 
Greek,  the  servant  of  an  English  turkey  merchant,  one  Mr.  D. 
Edwards.  Its  use  in  England  spread  from  that  time  on,  and  the 
coffee  houses  established  in  various  parts  of  London  became  the 
meeting  places  for  people  of  all  social  classes  and  political  parties 
and  religious  sects.     Since  in  the  consumption  of  coffee  sugar 

»*  Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Colonial,  1669-1674.  p.  104. 
"■Calendar  of  State  Papers.  Colonial,  1669-1674.  P-  iSi- 
*■  Payne,  1.  c,  I,  p.  4^5. 


THE  DEMAND  I?OR  ENGLISH  SUGAR, 


91 


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played  so  essential  a  part,  any  idea  of  the  place  occupied  by  coffee 
in  the  England  of  the  seventeenth  century  will  throw  much  light 
on  the  importance  that  was  then  attached  to  sugar.  To  ascertain 
just  what  role  coffee  played  in  the  life  and  manners  of  the  English 
people  at  that  time  one  cannot  do  better  than  turn  to  the  pages 
of  Macaulay : 

"The  coffee-houses,"  he  says,  "must  not  be  dismissed  with  a  cursory 
mention.  .  .  .  The  first  of  these  establishments  had  been  set  up  in 
the  time  of  the  Commonwealth  by  a  Turkey  merchant  who  had  acquired 
among  the  Mohammedans  a  taste  for  their  favourite  beverage.  The 
convenience  of  being  able  to  make  appointments  in  any  part  of  the  town 
and  of  being  able  to  pass  evenings  socially  at  a  very  small  charge  was  so 
great  that  the  fashion  spread  fast.  Every  man  of  the  upper  or  middle 
class  went  daily  to  his  coffee-house  to  learn  the  news  and  to  discuss  it. 
Every  coffee-house  had  one  or  more  orators  to  whose  eloquence  the 
crowd  listened  with  admiration,  and  who  soon  became  what  the  journalists 
of  our  time  have  well  called  a  fourth  Estate  of  the  Realm.  .  .  . 
Nobody  was  excluded  from  these  places  who  laid  down  his  penny  at  the 
bar.  Yet  every  rank  and  profession  and  every  shade  of  religious  and 
political  opinion  had  its  own  headquarters.  .  .  .  There  were  coffee- 
houses where  the  first  medical  men  might  be  consulted.  Dr.  John  Rad- 
cliffe,  who  in  the  year  1685  rose  to  the  largest  practice  in  London,  came 
daily'  at  the  hour  when  the  exchange  was  full  from  his  house  in  Bow 
Street,  then  a  fashionable  part  of  the  Capital,  to  Garraway's,  and  was  to  be 
found  surrounded  by  surgeons  and  apothecaries  at  a  particular  table. 
There  were  Puritan  coffee-houses  where  no  oath  was  heard,  and  where 
lank-haired  men  discussed  election  and  reprobation  through  their  noses- 
Jew  coffee-houses,  where  dark-eyed  money  changers  from  Venice  and 
from  Amsterdam  greeted  each  other,  and  Popish  coffee-houses,  where,  as 
good  Protestants  believed,  Jesuits  planned  over  their  cups  another  great 
fire,  and  cast  silver  bullets  to  shoot  the  King."  " 

This  great  popularity  of  the  coffee-houses  in  London  was  due 
as  much,  perhaps,  to  the  taste  and  desire  for  coffee  as  to  the 
general  political  and  social  conditions  of  the  age.  In  that  age, 
Macaulay  tells  us,  "no  Parliament  had  sat  for  years.  The 
municipal  council  of  the  city  had  ceased  to  speak  the  sense  of  the 
citizens.  Public  meetings,  harangues,  resolutions  and  the  rest  of 
the  modern  machinery  of  agitation  had  not  yet  come  into  fashion. 

"  Macaulay,  "History  of  England,"  Harper  &  Bros.,  New  York,  1879, 
I,  pp.  339  sq. 


92 


SUGAR  AS  A   COMMODITY. 


THE  DEMAND  FOR  ENGLISH  SUGAR. 


Wfi 


Nothing  resembling  the  modern  newspaper  existed.  In  such  cir- 
cumstances the  coffee-houses  were  the  chief  organs  through  which 
the  public  opinion  of  the  metropolis  vented  itself."** 

Combined  with  these  circumstances,  however,  the  nature  of  cof- 
fee must  still  have  been  an  important  determining  element  in  mak- 
ing it  the  beverage  that  should  give  those  meeting  places  not  only 
their  character  but  also  their  name.  Coffee  was,  in  short,  a  drink 
to  which  no  one  could  object  on  moral  or  on  other  grounds.  Its 
qualities,  furthermore,  as  a  stimulant  rendered  it  attractive  and 
generally  desirable  and  desired  at  a  high  and  slowly  declining 
degree  of  utility.  These  various  circumstances  of  supply  and 
demand  had  as  their  natural  consequence  a  greatly  extended  con- 
sumption of  coffee,  and  attendant  upon  it  a  great  increase  in  the 
use  of  sugar.*" 

Tea  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  entered  into  popular  use  in 
England  in  the  seventeenth  century,  for  in  1700  the  price  per 
pound  was  still  tremendously  high.  Its  use  was  introduced  into 
England  almost  simultaneously  with  that  of  coffee,  but  its  value 
remained  apparently  much  higher  than  that  of  the  latter  com- 
modity, and  it  was  for  succeeding  centuries  to  witness  the  final 
triumph  of  tea  as  the  national  beverage  of  England." 

**Tea,"  says  Phillips,  "appears  to  have  been  first  used  in  Eng- 

"Macaulay,  1.  c,  p.  339' 

*•  Coffee,  unlike  cacao,  was  not  in  the  seventeenth  century  an  English 
colonial  product.  "Till  1690,"  we  are  told  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica 
(Vol.  VI,  p.  Ill),  "the  only  source  of  the  coffee  supply  was  Arabia;  but 
then  Governor-General  van  Hoorne,  of  the  Dutch  East  Indies,  received 
a  few  coffee  seeds  by  traders  plying  from  the  Arabian  Gulf  and  Java,  and 
one  of  the  first  plants  thus  grown  in  Java  was  sent  to  Holland  and  planted 
in  the  Botanical  Gardens  in  Amsterdam.  The  plants  grew  and  flourished 
also  in  Java.  Cultivation  was  established  in  Surinam  in  1718  and  ten  years 
later,  in  1728,  the  plant  was  introduced  in  the  West  India  Islands, 
and  gradually  the  culture  extended  throughout  the  New  World." 

"High  prices  prevailed  until  the  dawning  of  the  eighteenth  century- 
according  to  Phillips  ("History  of  Cultivated  Vegetables,"  1822,  Vol.  II, 
p.  294),  until  1 715,  when  "green  tea  began  to  be  used,  and  as  it  was 
imported  in  greater  quantities  the  price  was  lessened."  All  the  records  of 
the  price  of  tea  before  that  date  show  prohibitive  figures. 


■•  -ift   # 


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"»-! 


land  during  the  Commonwealth,  for  on  the  restoration  of  Charles 
II,  in  1660,  Parliament  in  that  year  laid  a  duty  of  eight  pence  on 
every  gallon  of  the  infusion  of  tea  that  was  sold  at  the  coflfee- 
houses.  This  duty  could  not  have  been  very  productive  to  the 
government,  as  the  price  of  common  tea  was  then  sixty  shillings 
per  pound  in  London.^^  .  .  .  *An  exact  description  of  the 
growth,  quality  and  virtues  of  the  leaf  tea,'  declares  that  in  1659 
and  1660  tea  was  very  scarce  and  dear,  and  in  respect  of  its 
scarceness  and  dearness  it  hath  been  used  only  as  a  regalia  in 
high  treatments  and  entertainments  and  presents  made  thereof  to 
princes  and  grandees."^®  ^° 

A  contemporary  mention  of  the  three  "dietetic  beverages" — 
chocolate,  coffee  and  tea — in  the  seventeenth  century  is  quoted  by 
Phillips  and  is  of  great  interest  as  showing  the  place  that  they  held 
in  the  esteem  of  the  people  of  that  age.  It  is  from  the  pen  of 
Father  Athanasius  Kircher,  who  wrote  after  1655.  From  his 
words  it  is  evident  that  these  three  commodities — chocolate,  coflFee 
and  tea — were  all  in  more  or  less  general  use  when  he  wrote.  He 
says,  in  part : 

"There  is  a  plant  called  cha,  which  not  being  able  to  contain  itself  within 
the  bounds  of  China  hath  insinuated  itself  into  Europe.  .  .  .  For  its 
physical  properties  of  exhilaration  .  .  .  though  the  Turkish  coffee 
administer  the  like  cordiality  and  the  Mexican  chocolate  be  another  excel- 
lent drink,  yet  tea,  if  the  best,  very  much  excel leth  them  both,  because 
that  chocolate  in  hot  seasons  inflameth  more  than  ordinary  and  coffee 
agitateth  choler,  but  tea  in  all  seasons  hath  one  and  the  same  effect."  **  " 

"  Phillips,  1.  c,  II,  p.  290. 

"Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  XXIII,  p.  108  b. 

""In  1666,"  says  Phillips  (1.  c,  II,  p.  291),  "tea  appears  to  have  been 
used  by  families  of  distinction,  as  we  are  told  that  in  that  year  it  was 
imported  from  Holland  by  the  Lords  Arlington  and  Ossory,  who  brought  it 
into  the  fashion  among  people  of  quality.  He  suggests  also  that  inasmuch 
as  this  was  the  year  after  the  great  plague  of  London  ...  it  may  have 
been  considered  an  antidote  against  that  disorder — If  this  opinion,"  he 
concludes,  "was  entertained,  we  need  not  be  surprised  at  the  rapidity 
with  which  tea  came  into  use." 

"  Phillips,  1.  c,  II,  p.  287. 

"  Tea  has  been  here  taken  into  account  more  for  its  potential  and  pros- 


94 


SUGAR  AS  A   COMMODITY. 


THE  DEMAND  FOR  ENGLISH  SUGAR. 


95 


The  inevitable  effect  of  the  growing  use  of  tea  and  coffee  upon 
the  demand  for  sugar  has  been  generally  recognized  by  students 
of  its  history.  "The  quantity  of  raw  sugar  consumed  in  England," 
says  Reed,  "was  inconsiderable  until  tea  and  coffee  came  into  use, 
both  of  them  being  introduced  toward  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century.    Its  use  commenced  from  this  period  to  be  general."'*' 

In  addition  to  the  increasing  consumption  of  sugar  within  the 
confines  of  England  during  the  seventeenth  century,  there  was 
beyond  her  borders  also,  an  extensive  demand  for  English  sugars. 
A  petition  of  grievances  to  the  King  from  Barbados,  dated  April 
i6,  1675,  states  that  "the  half  of  the  sugars  that  are  broitght  into 
England  are  not  consumed  in  your  Majesty's  dominions."^*  In 
1691  (-2),  moreover,  in  a  statement  of  the  case  of  the  sugar 
refiners,  it  is  declared  that  the  "trade  of  refining  sugars"  in  Eng- 
land had  "extended  itself  to  the  supply  of  many  foreign  parts,  and 
particularly  the  greatest  part  of  the  East  Country,  which  is  a  very 
profitable  trade  to  this  kingdom."^"  In  this  same  paper,  however, 
the  loss  of  the  English  foreign  sugar  trade  is  deplored,  and  is 
attributed  to  the  relative  advantages  that  the  other  European 
nations,  especially  the  French  and  the  Dutch,  possessed  in  this 
respect  over  the  English. 

The  influence  of  France  was  exerted  indirectly  upon  the  English 
sugar  market  through  the  foreign  market.  France  won  from 
England  the  foreign  demand  for  her  sugars,  and  so  put  at  the 

pective  effect  on  the  consumption  of  sugar  than  for  any  appreciable  influ- 
ence—then at  best  only  incipient— which  it  actually  exerted  in  the  seven- 
teenth century.  In  later  years,  when  the  price  of  tea  had  become  much  less, 
and  that  beverage  began  to  be  used  in  England  in  somewhat  the  same 
proportions  as  now  characterize  its  consumption,  the  reaction  on  the  con- 
sumption of  sugar  was  a  most  important  element  in  determining  the 
demand  for  the  last-named  article.  It  has,  therefore,  seemed  well  to  stop 
a  moment  over  the  very  first  introduction  of  tea  into  England,  as  prepara- 
tory to  an  understanding  of  the  influence  which  it  later  wielded. 
"  Reed,  1.  c,  p.  188. 

*  Colonial  Entry  Book,  Vol.  13,  pp.  I79,  180. 

*  A  report  of  the  Commissioners  of  Customs  to  the  Lords  Commission- 
ers of  the  Treasury  on  the  case  of  the  Sugar  Refiners,  January  13,  1691  (-2)  ; 
Treasury  Board  Papers,  Vol.  XVII,  No,  14, 


4 


*  -ft 


f^tjl 


disposal  of  the  English  consumers  much  greater  quantities  of  that 
commodity  than  would  otherwise  have  remained  in  England.  The 
power  of  the  French  in  the  West  Indies  asserted  itself  early  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  and  French  statesmen  soon  realized  the 
possibility  of  acquiring  great  riches  in  those  regions.  "Cardinal 
Richelieu,"  says  Anderson  in  an  entry  for  1638,  "seems  to  have 
understood  very  early  the  importance  of  which  the  French  West 
India  Isles  would  prove  even  before  they  had  any  sugar  canes 
planted  in  them,  and  having  the  glory  and  interest  of  France  very 
much  at  heart,  he  labored  to  give  his  sovereign  Louis  XIII 
favorable  impressions  of  them,  although  they  produced  nothing 
yet  but  cotton,  ginger  and  bad  tobacco.  Wherefore  he  at  this  time 
got  his  King  to  appoint  the  Governor  of  those  isles  to  be  his  own 
Lieutenant  General  there.  By  such  means  the  French  isles  soon 
became  much  improved,  more  particularly  Martinico  and  their 
moiety  of  St.  Christopher.  "2* 

French  sugars  began  to  assert  their  supremacy  over  the  English 
toward  the  latter  part  of  the  century.  A  complaint  of  the  year 
1668  declares  that  "the  French  have  greatly  increased  by  setting 
a  great  imposition  on  foreign  sugars,  and  a  low  one  on  their  own, 
so  the  English  cannot  buy  necessaries  half  as  cheap  as  their  neigh- 
bors, nor  make  sugar  on  nigh  such  easy  terms,  and  go  and  live 
among  the  French,  who  give  them  all  sorts  of  encouragement. 
English  commodities,  production,  inhabitants  and  navigation  are 
thus  much  decreased  and  their  neighbors  much  augmented,  and 
if  some  remedy  be  not  suddenly  applied  the  English  islands,  inhab- 
ited only  by  masters  of  great  plantations  and  their  blacks,  will 
either  be  cut  oiT  by  their  own  negroes  or  become  a  prey  to  any 
assailant."=*^  So  far  had  the  matter  gone  by  1690  that  Sir  Dalby 
Thomas  declared  in  that  year: 

"Anderson,  1.  c,  II,  p.  380. 

"Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Colonial,  1661-1668,  p.  542. 

"The  French,"  I  find  elsewhere,  (Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Colonial, 
1669-1674,  p.  98)  "are  seated  (in  1670)  upon  part  of  St.  Christopher's  and 
have  much  increased  the  number  of  their  people  and  their  forces,  trade 
and  plantations  there  and  in  the  neighbouring  islands."  For  the  year  1676 
the  following  entry  occurs:    (Ibid.,  1574-1674,  Addenda;  1675-1676,  p.  421) 


96 


SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


\% 


THE  DEMAND  FOR  ENGLISH  SUGAR. 


97 


"Should  the  art  of  making  sugar  be  so  discouraged  as  to  take  its  next 
flight  to  the  Dutch  or  French,  as  it  did  from  Portugal  to  us,  the  loss 
would  prove  of  the  like  consequence  which  is  no  less  than  the  decay  of 
the  greatest  part  of  their  shipping  and  the  fall  of  half  their  revenue — 
they  being  forced  to  abate  the  lo  per  cent,  duty  lately  to  get  some  to  be 
exported,  and  that  with  little  or  no  success."  " 

Biitel-Dumont  has  drawn  an  adequate  summary  of  the  French 
activity  with  regard  to  sugar,  and  I  shall  quote  it  as  a  conclusion 
to  the  question.  He  says  that  in  early  days  the  French  West  India 
Islands  were  left  relatively  undeveloped,  because  the  French  colo- 
nists had  not  enough  capital  to  grow  the  sugar  cane.  Finally, 
however,  the  French  Government  resolved  to  encourage  sugar 
cultivation,  and  began  accordingly  to  multiply  plantations.  In  this 
state,  the  French  were  ready  to  seize  any  opportunky  that  should 
be  offered  of  making  themselves  masters  in  the  field.  The  chance 
came  finally  when  James  II  laid  his  additional  heavy  burdens  upon 
sugar,  and  when  the  French  islands  could,  therefore,  supply 
France  with  sugar  as  cheaply  as  England  could.  "Depuis  ce 
temps,"  he  concludes,  **le  commerce  de  sucre  que  faisoient  les 
Anglois  avec  les  etrangers  sortit  par  degres  de  leurs  mains  et 
passa  entierement  dans  celle  des  Frangois."- 

In  the  midst  of  this  danger  from  the  French  the  Dutch  were! 
still  persistently  pushing  their  attempts  to  maintain  the  carrying 
trade  in  sugar.  Despite  the  Navigation  Acts  they  were  unwilling 
to  give  up  the  struggle  for  commercial  supremacy.  It  is  recorded 
that  in  1671  some  millions  of  sugar  were  carried  from  Nevis  into 
Holland."*®  In  1690  Sir  Dalby  Thomas  assures  us  that  "great 
quantities  of  commodities  are  sent  out  of  the  Leeward  Caribby 
Islands  and  sold  to  the  Dutch  at  low  prices  for  private  lucre — for 
those  people  saving  all  the  duty  as  well  as  four  and  one-half  per 

*The  French  are  possessed  of  Martinique,  Guadaloupe,  St.  Christopher's 
(in  great  part),  Marigolante,  Cayenne.  .  .  .  Their  strength  is  very 
considerable  as  shown  by  their  resistance  to  the  attack  by  the  Dutch  in 
1675.''* 

"  Sir  Dalby  Thomas,  Harleian  Miscellany,  1,  c,  11,  p.  367. 

•  Butel-Dumont,  1.  c,  p.  217, 

•"Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Colonial,  1669-1674,  p.  339. 


I 


ft 


cent,  there  as  the  customs  in  England,  and  having  goods  in  barter 
for  them  directly  from  Holland,  can  afford  their  sugar  much 
cheaper  than  their  neighbors,  so  that  there  go  out  of  that  back 
door  for  Holland  under  the  name  of  'St.  Eustace  Sugar*  above 
fifteen  hundred  hogsheads  of  muscovado  sugar,  which  refined 
with  great  advantage  to  that  nation  in  Holland  keeps  markets  low 
in  all  foreign  parts.""  ^^  By  this  means,  obviously,  the  Dutch 
carried  from  the  English  colonies  sugar  that  would  otherwise  have 
been  taken  to  England  to  be  refined.  By  transporting  this  same 
sugar  to  various  parts  of  Europe,  and  selling  it  cheaper  than  the 
English  sugar  refiners  could  sell  theirs,  these  Dutch  traders  added 
their  influence  to  that  of  the  French  in  the  losing  of  the  foreign 
sugar  market  to  England. 

These,  then,  were  the  conditions  of  demand  which  the  English 
sugar  market  was  called  upon  to  meet,  namely,  a  foreign  market 
for  her  produce,  greatly  diminished  by  the  successful  competition 
of  the  French  and  the  Dutch;  and  a  demand  at  home  greatly 
increased  by  reason  especially  of  the  consumption  of  chocolate  and 
coffee  and  tea. 

■*  Sir  Dalby  Thomas,  Harleian  Miscellany,  1.  c,  II,  p.  382. 

"In  1685  (Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Colonial,  1681-1685,  p.  84),  the 
Lieutenant-Governor  Molesworth,  of  Jamaica,  wrote  to  Wm.  Blathwa}^!: 
"I  must  not  omit  to  tell  you  of  the  vast  discouragement  that  will  be  thrown 
on  planting  by  the  additional  duty  on  sugar.  .  .  .  Those  that  persuade 
the  King  that  the  duty  will  fall  only  on  the  expender  argue  well,  supposing 
that  no  other  nation  made  sugar  but  ourselves.  But  when  we  consider  that 
the  French,  Dutch,  and  Portuguese  are  all  our  competitors  and  that  the 
chief  vent  for  our  own  is  in  foreign  markets  (which  by  this  additional 
duty  will  be  lost  to  us),  all  their  reasoning  is  invalid  and  tends  only  to  the 
destruction  of  the  plantations.  The  short  of  it  is  that  Virginia  receives  a 
mortal  stab,  Barbadoes  and  the  Islands  fall  into  a  hectic  fever,  and  Jamaica 
into  a  consumption." 


I 


9^ 


SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


"Should  the  art  of  making  sugar  be  so  discouraged  as  to  take  its  next 
flight  to  the  Dutch  or  French,  as  it  did  from  Portugal  to  us,  the  loss 
would  prove  of  the  like  consequence  which  is  no  less  than  the  decay  of 
the  greatest  part  of  their  shipping  and  the  fall  of  half  their  revenue — 
they  being  forced  to  abate  the  lo  per  cent,  duty  lately  to  get  some  to  be 
exported,  and  that  with  little  or  no  success."  *" 

Biitel-Dumont  has  drawn  an  adequate  summary  of  the  French 
activity  with  regard  to  sugar,  and  I  shall  quote  it  as  a  conclusion 
to  the  question.  He  says  that  in  early  days  the  French  West  India 
Islands  were  left  relatively  undeveloped,  because  the  French  colo- 
nists had  not  enough  capital  to  grow  the  sugar  cane.  Finally, 
however,  the  French  Government  resolved  to  encourage  sugar 
cultivation,  and  began  accordingly  to  multiply  plantations.  In  this 
state,  the  French  were  ready  to  seize  any  opportunity  that  should 
be  offered  of  making  themselves  masters  in  the  field.  The  chance 
came  finally  when  James  II  laid  his  additional  heavy  burdens  upon 
sugar,  and  when  the  French  islands  could,  therefore,  supply 
France  with  sugar  as  cheaply  as  England  could.  "Depuis  ce 
temps,"  he  concludes,  **!e  commerce  de  sucre  que  faisoient  les 
Ane^lois  avec  les  etrangers  sortit  par  degres  de  leurs  mains  et 
passa  entierement  dans  celle  des  Fra„,ois."» 

In  the  midst  of  this  danger  from  the  French  the  Dutch  were 
still  persistently  pushing  their  attempts  to  maintain  the  carrying 
trade  in  sugar.  Despite  the  Navigation  Acts  they  were  unwilling 
to  give  up  the  strt,ggle  for  commercial  supremacy.  It  is  recorded 
that  in  1671  some  millions  of  sugar  were  carried  from  Nevis  into 
Holland."^*  In  1690  Sir  Dalby  Thomas  assures  us  that  "great 
quantities  of  comWlities  are  Lt  out  of  the  Leeward  Caribby 
Lands  and  sold  to  the  Dutch  at  low  prices  for  private  lucre-for 
those  people  saving  all  the  duty  as  well  as  four  and  one-half  per 

**The  French  are  possessed  of  Martinique,  Guadaloupe,  St.  Christopher's 
(in  great  part),  Marigolante,  Cayenne.  .  .  .  Their  strength  is  very 
considerable  as  shown  by  their  resistance  to  the  attack  by  the  Dutch  in 

1675" 
"  Sir  Dalby  Thomas,  Harleian  Miscellany,  1.  c,  11,  p.  367. 

*  Butel-Dumont,  1.  c,  p.  217. 

"  Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Colonial,  1669- 1674,  p.  339. 


THE  DEMAND  FOR  ENGLISH  SUGAR. 


97 


i 


7/ 


f  1 


il 


*/ 


cent,  there  as  the  customs  in  England,  and  having  goods  in  barter 
for  them  directly  from  Holland,  can  afford  their  sugar  much 
cheaper  than  their  neighbors,  so  that  there  go  out  of  that  back 
door  for  Holland  under  the  name  of  'St.  Eustace  Sugar'  above 
fifteen  hundred  hogsheads  of  muscovado  sugar,  which  refined 
with  great  advantage  to  that  nation  in  Holland  keeps  markets  low 
in  all  foreign  parts. "^^  ^^  By  this  means,  obviously,  the  Dutch 
carried  from  the  English  colonies  sugar  that  would  otherwise  have 
been  taken  to  England  to  be  refined.  By  transporting  this  same 
sugar  to  various  parts  of  Europe,  and  selling  it  cheaper  than  the 
English  sugar  refiners  could  sell  theirs,  these  Dutch  traders  added 
their  influence  to  that  of  the  French  in  the  losing  of  the  foreign 
sugar  market  to  England. 

These,  then,  were  the  conditions  of  demand  which  the  English 
sugar  market  was  called  upon  to  meet,  namely,  a  foreign  market 
for  her  produce,  greatly  diminished  by  the  successful  competition 
of  the  French  and  the  Dutch;  and  a  demand  at  home  greatly 
increased  by  reason  especially  of  the  consumption  of  chocolate  and 
coffee  and  tea. 

"*  Sir  Dalby  Thomas,  Harleian  Miscellany,  1.  c,  II,  p.  382. 

"In  1685  (Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Colonial,  1681-1685,  p.  84),  the 
Lieutenant-Governor  Molesworth,  of  Jamaica,  wrote  to  Wm.  Blathwasrt: 
"I  must  not  omit  to  tell  you  of  the  vast  discouragement  that  will  be  thrown 
on  planting  by  the  additional  duty  on  sugar.  .  .  .  Those  that  persuade 
the  King  that  the  duty  will  fall  only  on  the  expender  argue  well,  supposing 
that  no  other  nation  made  sugar  but  ourselves.  But  when  we  consider  that 
the  French,  Dutch,  and  Portuguese  are  all  our  competitors  and  that  the 
chief  vent  for  our  own  is  in  foreign  markets  (which  by  this  additional 
duty  will  be  lost  to  us),  all  their  reasoning  is  invalid  and  tends  only  to  the 
destruction  of  the  plantations.  The  short  of  it  is  that  Virginia  receives  a 
mortal  stab,  Barbadoes  and  the  Islands  fall  into  a  hectic  fever,  and  Jamaica 
into  a  consumption." 


*y 


\',% 


THE  SUPPLY  OF  SUGAR  IN  ENGLAND. 


jf5f 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

The  Supply  of  Sugar  in  England. 

The  cultivation  of  sugar  oiice  introduced  into  the  English  West 
Indies  spread  rapidly.  Although  the  cane  was  not  planted  in 
Barhados  until  1641,  and  although  her  greatest  prosperity  did  not 
begin  until  after  1647,  yet  in  1655  one  thousand  four  hundred  and 
nineteen  pounds  and  four  shillings,  sterling,  were  received  at 
the  port  of  London  as  customs  on  white  sugars  from  that 
island,  and  ten  thousand  pounds  and  ten  shillings  were  re- 
ceived on  brown  sugar  from  the  same  place.^  The  amounts 
of  sugar  sent  from  Barbados  to  England  between  the  years 
1697  and  1700,  as  given  in  a  later  manuscript,  reveal  an 
enormous  productivity  for  that  island  at  the  close  of  the  sev- 
enteenth century.*  Jamaica  under  Spanish  rule  did  not  pro- 
duce great  quantities  of  sugar.  Under  the  English  her  fer- 
tility was  first  turned  to  account  in  the  production  of  cacao. 
In  1660  the  sugar  cane  was  planted  on  the  island,  and  although 
for  some  years  after  that  cacao  was  her  chief  product,  still  the 
amounts  of  sugar  produced  were  not  inconsiderable,  and  increased 

*  Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Colonial.  1574- 1660,  p.  434- 
*The  figures  referred  to  are  taken  from   the   Rawlinson   Manuscript 
(B-2S0,  Folio  64)  in  the  Bodleian  Library.    No  signature  is  attached,  and 
there  is  no  mention  of  authority;  but  I  shall  quote  them  here  as  in  large 
measure  indicative  of  actual  conditions  at  that  time.    They  are  as  follows : 
Of  Muscovado  sugars  there  were  sent  from  Barbados  to  England : 

Hogsheads  63,666 

Tierces    4A5^ 

Barrels    •  •  ^4*^3 

Pounds   •  •    8,800 

Small  Casks  163 

and  of  white  sugar : 

Hogsheads    2,148 

Tierces   37^ 

Barrels 1*267 

(98) 


i*  "  f 


pt 


*  -  „ 


y 


.  I 


VI 


rapidly.  In  the  year  1670  she  was  producing  seventeen  hundred 
and  ten  thousand  weight  of  sugar  annually,^  while  at  the  close  of 
the  century  this  production  had  been  greatly  augmented.* 

The  area  of  sugar  cultivation  by  the  English  in  the  West  India 
Islands  expanded  constantly.  Its  growth  was,  however,  not  with- 
out many  vicissitudes.  The  international  relationships  in  Europe 
during  the  seventeenth  century  were  more  or  less  faithfully 
reflected  in  West  Indian  conditions,  and  the  last  fifty  years  of  the 
era  were  marked  in  those  islands  by  a  constant  shifting  of  pos- 
session. It  is,  therefore,  most  difficult  to  obtain  any  clear  idea  of 
the  exact  range  of  the  English  sources  of  supply  of  sugar.  The 
best  that  one  can  do  is  to  attempt  to  stay  the  kaleidoscope  at  a 
point  when  its  picture  seems  most  representative.  This  has  in  a 
measure  been  done  for  us  in  an  account  of  the  bounds  of  English 
and  French  influence  in  the  West  Indies  in  1666.  "In  the  year 
1666,"  we  read,  "the  English  were  possessed  of  Barbadoes,  the 
better  half  of  St.  Christopher's,  Nevis,  Montserrat,  Antigua  and 
Suranam;  those  Plantations  did  then  employ  above  ffower  hun- 
dred saile  of  English  shipps  annually  and  in  them  above  ten 
thousand  English  seamen  and  did  also  furnish  a  native  com- 
modity of  above  eight  hundred  thousand  Pounds  Value  per  annum 
to  this  Nation  besides  a  considerable  revenue  to  the  crown."'*  In 
addition  to  the  islands  here  enumerated,  Jamaica  must,  of  course, 
be  included  among  the  English  sugar  plantations  at  that  time. 

•Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Colonial,  1669- 1674,  P-  104. 

*  Manuscript  Rawlinson,  Bodleian  Library,  B-250,  Folio  59.  According 
to  this  manuscript  there  were  sent  from  Jamaica  to  England  in  the  years 
from  1680  until  1684,  31,647  hogsheads  of  sugar  and  57  barrels  of  molasses. 
In  the  years  from  1686  until  1691  (Folio  60)  there  were  sent  from 
Jamaica  to  England  57,102  hogsheads  of  sugar  and  1,073  barrels  of  the 
same,  while  (Folio  61)  in  the  years  1698- 1700  the  amounts  sent  from 
Jamaica  to  England  were  19,412  hogsheads,  and  719  barrels  of  sugar. 

"  Colonial  Entry  Book,  Vol.  13,  p.  56.  Papers  appended  to  a  letter  of  the 
Gentlemen — Planters  of  London  to  the  Council  and  Assembly  of  Barba- 
does concerning  their  efforts  against  a  proposed  duty  on  English  sugar, 
which  papers  contain  the  various  appeals  handed  in  to  Parliament.  The 
quotation  is  taken  from  the  "State  of  the  Case  of  the  Sugar  Planters  in 
America." 


lOO 


SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


If 
■I 


This  increasing  productivity  of  the  sugar  islands  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  meant,  of  course,  a  great  increase  in  the  supply  of 
sugar  on  the  English  market.  Not  all,  however,  of  the  yield  of 
tie  English  West  India  plantations  found  its  way  to  the  mother 
country.  There  was  at  that  time  a  great  demand  outside  of 
England  for  sugar  and  the  by-products  of  sugar — molasses  and 
rum.  The  chief  area  of  this  demand  was  the  continent  colonies 
of  North  America.  Trade  relations  between  the  North  American 
colonies  and  the  West  India  Islands  were  very  early  established. 
The  West  Indies  served  for  the  continental  settlements,  both  as  a 
vent  for  their  native  products,  and  as  a  base  of  supply  for  various 
articles  that  they  needed.  To  the  islands,  on  the  other  hand,  trade 
with  the  mainland  colonies  was  essential  as  the  means  by  which 
they  might  procure  such  commodities  as  "boards,  timber,  pipe- 
staves,  horses  and  fish,  without  which  they  could  not  maintain 
their  buildings  nor  send  home  their  sugars."* 

Great  quantities  of  sugar  were  transported  from  the  West 
India  Islands  to  the  continent  colonies.  In  the  year  1677-1678 
Jamaica,  St.  Christopher's,  Nevis  and  Barbados  sent  large  imports 
to  New  England,  New  York,  Virgima  and  the  Carolinas,  and  this 
year  was  a  representative  one  for  that  time.^  All  of  this  sugar, 
however,  was  not  consumed  in  the  North  American  colonies.    The 

•Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Colonial,  1669- 1674,  p.  475. 
'Colonial  Papers,  Vol.  43,  No.  180;  West  Indies-7-An  account  of 
goods  cntred  in  his  Matte?  Custome  Houses  in  the  American  Plantations 
as  exported  from  one  Plantation  to  another  in  the  respective  Tymes  here- 
mfter  menconed:  Vizt — Extracted  out  of  such  Accts.  as  are  Remaining 
in  ye  custody  of  ye  Comptroller  General  (Giles  Lytcott)  of  the  Accts.  of 
his  Ma!!««  Customes  at  Xmas,  1679^ 

Mchas  1677— Mchat  1678. 
Pfom  Jamaica  to 

Virginia ,  33,100  Ibi  sugar 

Bay  of  Campeachy 19,600  lbs   sugar 

New  England 

New  York 

Carolina 1,200  lbs.  sugar 

Caracoa 

53>90O  lbs.  sugar 


iN 


^■fl  A* 


THE  SUPPLY  O^  SUGAR  IN  ENGLAND.  lOI 

development  of  inter-colonial  trade  had  been  such  that  the  conti- 
nental colonies  regularly  exported  their  products  to  the  West 
Indies,  and  received  in  return  West  Indian  sugar,  tobacco,  etc., 
which'they  in  turn  sent  on  to  Europe.  In  so  far  as  the  Navigation 
Act  was  obeyed,  this  sugar  was  sold  ultimately  on  the  Enghsh 
market,  so  that  the  round-about  trade  through  the  mainland 
colonies  did  not  necessarily  act  as  a  great  check  upon  the  supply 
in  England.  It  was,  therefore,  by  the  amount  actually  consumed 
in  the  colonies  that  the  English  supply  of  sugar  was  chiefly 
lessened,  compared  with  the  amount  produced  in  the  English 
colonies.^  That  great  quantities  of  sugar  did  find  their  way  to 
England  through  the  continental  colonies  is  evident  from  the 
many  records  extant  of  ships  laden  with  sugar  which  arnved  in 
English  ports  from  points  on  the  American  mainland.    An  account 

From  Nevis  to  ^  „ 

Virginia   3.136  tbs.  sugar 

New  England   130,266  lbs.  sugar 

Barbados  *  • 

St.  Xophers  3.136  fts.  sugar 

Bermudas    3.920  lbs,  sugar 

/j^otal    140,458  lbs.  sugar 

From  Xophers  to                                                                     «.  ^^ 

New  England 'S2Mi  ^s.  sugar 

Virginia   22,230  lbs.  sugar 

Bermudas ^'!S  !^''  '"^' 

Nevis    896  lbs.  sugar 

Montserrat 

T^otal 182,519  lbs   sugar 

From  Barbados  to  ,        «. 

Bermudas    36.530  fcs.  sugar 

New  Yorke 30,550  fts.  sugar 

New  England 373,114  ^s.  sugar 

Virginia   131,970  fts.  sugar 

Carolina    9,325  fcs.  sugar 

T       •  '?,8oo  lbs.  sugar 

Jamaica *  •  * •''  ^ 

Total    585.289  lbs.  sugar 

•  It  should  be  remembered,  also,  that  some  of  the  sugar  that  was  con- 
sumed in  the  mainland  colonies  was  itself  brought  from  England. 


I02 


SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


I! 


of  the  present  state  of  New  England,  written  in  1676,  declares 
that  "tobacco,  sugar,  indigo,  cotton-wool,  ginger,  logwood,  fustic, 
cocoa  and  rum  are  imported  and  again  transported.""    "On  Sun- 
day/* I  find  elsewhere,  in  an  entry  for  the  year  1666,  "a  vessel  of 
one  hundred  and  twenty  tons  from  New  England  laden  with 
sugar,  tobacco,  indigo  and  some  beaver,  by  a  violent  storm  was 
cast  away  in  Plymouth  port  and  little  or  nothing  of  her  lading 
saved  f'^*  and  again,  "On  Friday  night  the  'Exchange'  of  Boston. 
New  England,  was  driven  in  this  harbour  (Swansea)  bound  for 
London,  laden  with  tobacco,  sugar,  oil  and  some  beaver-skins."" 
The  chief  form  that  the  sugar  trade — in  the  widest  acceptance 
of  that  term— between  the  sugar  islands  and  the  continent  colonies 
assumed— was  that  of  the  traffic  in  rum.     Inasmuch  as  rum  is 
merely  a  by-product  of  sugar,  the  importation  of  the  liquor  into 
America  did  not  seriously  affect  the  supply  of  sugar  upon  the 
English  market.    It  will,  nevertheless,  be  well  to  pause  a  moment 
at  this  point  to  consider  the  character  and  nature  of  this  com- 
merce in  rum,  since  it  is  indicative  of  the  extent  of  the  communica- 
tion that  then  existed  between  the  islands  and  the  mainland,  and 
also  suggests  the  encouragement  that  the  steady  demand  for  rum 
must  have  given  to  the  raising  of  sugar  in  the  island  colonies.    In 
the  northern  colonies  rum  was  the  commodity  in  return  for  which 
the  settlers  received  from  the  Indians  most  of  the  peltry  which 
for  many  years  was  one  of  the  chief  articles  of  colonial  export. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  that  whereas  in  Virginia  tobacco  was 
long  one  of  the  most  important  articles  of  barter  with  the  Indians, 
in  New  England  and  New  York  rum,  another  narcotic-stimulant, 
took  its  place  as  the  product  in  exchange  for  which  the  white  man 
obtained  indirectly  for  the  European  market  the  riches  of  the 
American  forests. 

•Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Colonial,  1574-1674,  Addenda;  1676-1676, 
p.  466.  Answer  of  Edward  Randolph  to  several  heads  of  inquiry  concerning 
the  present  State  of  New  England. 

*  Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Colonial,  1661-1668,  p.  430. 

"  Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Colonial.  1661-1668,  p.  429.  Another  entry 
for  this  same  year  (1666)  states  that  Mr.  Bendal's  (Kendal's)  from  New 
York  with  sugar,  tobacco  and  furs  was  .  .  .  cast  away  on  St  Francis 
Island."  (Ibid.,  p.  429.) 


I 


I  (-::•» 


THE  SUPPLY  OF  SUGAR  IN  ENGLAND.  I03 

Colonial  entries  abound  in  mention  of  the  rum  that  the  colonies 
haStom  ttwest  India  Islands.  The  great  P/^.  -°--;f; 
whichTey  played  in  taking  off  the  rum  there  produced  .s  cl^b^ 
Town  in  the  aaormous  discrepancy  between  the  amounts  of  rum 
fr^r^m  Se  West  Indies  to  England  and  the  northern  colomes 

■"XSlteUt  demand  for  the  West  Indian  --  to  supply  *e 
North  LeriL  Indians  in  exchange  for  furs,  another  large  mar- 

«The  figures   referred  -  -  taUen  frorn  the  I^.H-n  U^s^ 
(B.250,  Folio  64)    in  the  Bome.an  Library.     No  s^gna  ^^  ^ 

.„d  there  is  r^J^l^^^i^  U^Lr.  that  time.  The, 
lTfoX""ea"'?4"7trd°are  as  follows:  Of  Muscovado  s^ 
exported  from  Barbados  there  were  sent :         ^^  ^^^^^^^    ^^  Plantations 

„      .      .,  63,666  402 

Hogsheads    ^^  Og 

Tief<=«   ,4,693  4.733 

Barrels   ^;^ 

Pounds  jg  380 

Small  Casks   

and  of  white  sugar :  ^^  England    To  Plantations 

,  ....        2,148  

Hogsheads  , 

Tis'-'^f  ;■;"       1,267  103 

Barrels    

For  rum,  the  figures  are  quite  turned  about,  ^^<^^^^^^^^^^    ^^  PlanUtions 

4  6'^75 

Hogsheads  •■•'  ^  ^^^03 

Tierces 5837 

Barrels    3^32 

:rLroi^:r^orru^-^^^^^^ 

very  strongly  -«««-^  >"  ^.^f  [?;\  JX/^^^^  Colonial 

of   Barbados   fo^  AP"'     5,     679    (^a  ^^^  ^.^  ^^■^^., 

1677-1680,  p.  352)  'n  "hich  It  IS  resolvea     10    pyj  ^^.^ 

favour  in  setting  a  «f  ^^  Vat'^raLZ'ittto  Eng  and  on  reasonable 

;r,'  '^:^i:^!o;:oT^:^:z^z^y  it  to  h.  m.s,-s  ..eet 

and  other  occasions." 


I04 


SUGAR   AS   A   COMMODITY, 


THE  SUPPLY  OF  SUGAR  IN  ENGI^AND. 


105 


I  ^ 


krt  was  opened  up  for  this  product  among  the  natives  of  Africa. 
The  European  traders  yearly  carried  great  quantities  of  rum  to 
the  African  coast,  where  they  gave  it  in  exchange  for  slaves. 
These  slaves  they  carried  back  to  the  West  Indies  and  sold  to  the 
planters  there,  who  straightway  put  them  to  work  in  cultivating 
the  sugar  cane.  The  sugar  was  in  due  season  converted  in  part 
into  rum,  which  in  its  turn  was  carried  again  to  Africa,  and  thus 
served  to  bring  still  more  members  of  the  black  race  into  bondage. 
Ihus  was  the  seemingly  paradoxical  economic  circle  completed 
over  and  over  again  during  the  years  of  sugar  and  slavery  in  the 
West  India  Islands. 

In  addition,  also,  to  the  sugar  imported  into  England  from  her 
Amencan  colonies  there  were  some  Portuguese  sugars  on  the 
English  market  at  that  time.  From  Portugal  the  actual  importa- 
tion was  not  very  great ;  but  English  merchants  in  Portugal  man- 
aged  great  supplies  of  sugar  there,  and  re-exported  them  thence 
without  carrying  them  into  England.  The  effect  on  the  English 
market,  therefore,  was  the  same  as  if  the  commodity  had  in  reality 
been  put  on  sale  in  England,  as  the  account  of  it  was  recorded  to 
the  credit  of  the  English  merchant."  By  the  year  1691  the  impor- 
tobons  of  sugar  from  Lisbon  had  apparently  been  obliged  to  yield 
before  the  increasing  supplies  from  the  English  plantations,  so  that 

Pirn^!!"^'!^"'?'  ^^  ^°'-  '^  PP  59.  60.  Letter  of  the  Gentlemen- 
Planters  m  London  to  Council  and  Assembly  there  (in  Barbados)  con- 
cerning their  exertions  against  proposed  English  duty  on  suSr     Dated 

^e  Stafe'ofl"'  T\-  I" ^  ^''^i,^"^"^^'^  '»  'his  letter  and  entft  d 
J^d^t'tL^"  ^"«''f  .S"'?'^  Trade  with  that  of  Portugal."  it  i, 
»bted  that    there  was  not  miported  into  England  from  Portugal  above 

po^ds  T"  """"'''■   "?'*   <"•  "°»   ™'«  *•--  above  ZZ 

TT  ■/«■    .    r  °"«-<""rt«'-  of  the  sugars  received  in  Portugall  in 

a^tEn^Hsh  st  manufactures  are  not  brought  into  EnguT  fiit 
Xr  „f  f  '^'"  '^"'"'  '°  *•=  ''^"*'  Markets  of  the  straits  and 

other  places  and  returns  for  them  are  made  to  England  either  il  the 
manufactures  of  those  places  or  moneys.    .    .    .     (if)   would  be  much 

SfLS  '  '"'"!''  ""  ^"^  "^y  "•*"  to  have  returns  made  into 

Xe  Eng,i:r?hi°s^  "T"'  °'  't'  ^°""^'  p'""'^"''-  -<^  '"e  ;:[n 

ot  tne  tnglish.  The  sugars  that  are  brought  into  Portugal  for  the  market 
of  England  are  the  very  best  that  come  from  Brazil,  and  are  usuairsold 


Pi 


•■fp 


>  ■  .'"> 


at  the  end  of  the  century  sugar  from  Portugal  did  not  have  any 
significant  effect  upon  the  English  market.  In  a  paper  referred  in 
1691  (-2)  to  the  Commissioners  of  Customs  by  the  Lords  Com- 
missioners of  the  Treasury  it  is  stated  that  "The  antient  Trade  of 
refining  sugar  has  within  these  forty  yeares  past  very  much  in- 
creased in  this  Kingdom  by  reason  of  the  plentiful  supply  of 
Browne  sugars  from  our  owne  Plantacons  and  has  .  .  . 
beaten  out  the  Lisbon  trade  from  whence  we  were  formerly  sup- 
plied with  white  sugars."^* 

While  Portuguese  sugars  did  not  permanently  affect  the  Eng- 
lish market,  the  influence  of  the  other  European  nations  engaged 
in  the  sugar  trade  was  more  decided  and  more  lasting.  The 
activity  of  the  French  and  the  Dutch  in  usurping  the  foreign 
market  for  English  sugar  had  its  counter  effect  upon  the  domestic 
supply.  Moreover,  the  setting  in  of  the  law  of  diminishing  returns 
in  some  of  the  West  India  Islands  had,  during  the  latter  part  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  an  additional  effect  upon  the  supply  of 
sugar  in  England. 

As  the  inevitable  consequence  of  the  increase  in  French  sugar 
cultivation  and  trade,  much  of  the  sugar  that  England  had  for- 
merly supplied  to  her  foreign  consumers  was  thrown  back  upon 
her  domestic  market,  and  the  supply  of  sugar  in  England  was 
relatively  increased.  "In  the  year  1666,"  we  read,  "the  French 
made  sugar  on  half  of  St.  Xopher's  and  a  very  inconsiderable 
quantity  on  Martinico  and  Guadaloupe.  In  the  said  yeare  the 
ffrench  took  from  the  English  theire  halfe  of  St.  Xopher's,  An- 
tigua and  Montserrat,  and  in  them  above  fifteen  thousand  negroes 
and  materials  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  sugar  works,  amounting 
in  Valine  to  four  hundred  thousand  pounds  which  the(y)  carryed 
to  their  own  sugar  Plantations  and  are  thereby  not  only  very  much 
Increased  in  the  making  of  sugar,  but  in  strength  alsoe  by  the 
coming  to  them  of  great  numbers  from  ffrance  and  ffrom  the 

here  from  £3  to  £3  los.  per  cent,  whereas  the  English  being  by  the  Act  of 
Navigation  confined  all  to  England  and  the  most  part  of  their  whites  being 
coarse  in  comparison  of  those  of  Brazil  are  sold  for  about  45s.  per  cent  . ." 

"  Treasury  Board  Papers,  Vol.  XVII,  No.  14. 


io6 


SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


Englisli  CoUonyes.^'*  the  ffrench  Kinge  bending  his  designe  to 
be  great  at  sea  and  knowing  the  trade  to  the  Plantations  to  be  the 
best  nursery  for  seamen  did  furnish  his  West  India  Company 
with  a  very  great  stock  of  money,  other  acts  of  grace  and  ffavors 
in  order  to  be  engrosseing  of  that  commodity  and  Beating  the 
Einglish  out  of  that  Trade  and  for  the  Better  Compleating  that 
Designe  hath  since  the  taking  of  the  EngUsh  islands  imposed  a 
custome  in  ffrancs  but  of  ffower  Livres  p.  cent  upon  the  sugars 
of  his  owne  Plantations  of  what  quaJlity  soever,  and  ffifteene 
Livres  upon  whites  and  thirty-two  Livres  and  ten  sous  upon  Re- 
fined made  by  the  English  and  all  other  flForaigners.  By  reason  of 
which  great  Imposition  the  English  and  other  fforaigne  sugars  are 
not  transported  into  ff ranee  as  formerly  and  greater  quantityes  of 
sugars  are  Imported  into  England  which  soe  Llessens  the  valine  of 
cnglish  sugars  that  there  is  very  little  profitt  to  the  Planters  in 
making  them."^'  ". 

The  Dutch  activity  in  the  sugar  trade  had  much  the  same  effect 
on  England  as  had  the  French.  Contrary  to  the  Navigation  Acts 
the  Dutch  traders  continued  to  load  their  vessels  with  sugar  from 
the  English  plantations.  Of  this  sugar  they  carried  some  directly 
to  foreign  ports,  or  indeed  sometimes  to  the  American  colonies 

"  These  three  island  possessions  were  returned  to  England  by  France  in 
the  next  year  (1667),  according  to  the  Treaty  of  Breda. 

"•Colonial  Entry  Book,  Vol.  13,  p.  5^1  Barbados— Letter  of  Gentlemen- 
Planters  in  London  to  Council  and  Assembly  there  concerning  their  exer- 
tions against  the  proposed  English  duty  on  sugar.  London,  May  Day, 
1671.  In  the  "State  of  the  case  of  the  sugar  planters  in  America"  appended 
thereto. 

"Mr.  Rogers  notes  that  "the  duties  imposed  on  sugar  in  1685  were 
remitted  in  1693  because  it  was  found  that  they  interfered  with  the  foreign 
trade  of  the  English  refiners  and  traders."  (Rogers,  I.  c,  Vol.  V,  p.  462.) 
It  is  interesting  to  note  also  in  this  connection  that  the  price  of  sugar  rises 
ilifhtly  in  England  during  the  decade  1693-1702  over  the  decade  imme- 
diately preceding.  Mr.  Rogers  attributes  this  rise  to  the  "risks  of  war," 
Init  I  would  suggest  that  it  was  directly  connected  with  the  regulation  of 
1693,  The  evil,  of  course,  was  not  entirely  remedied  by  this  enactment, 
but  the  repeal  of  the  tax  was  undoubtedly  calculated  to  bring  about 
slightly  higher  prices  in  England,  removing,  as  it  did,  one  disability  of  the 
English  sugar  trader. 


▼M*  -5^ 


t  I 


rlt'i 


*  wi  *» 


THE  SUPPLY  0^  SUGAR  IN  ENGLAND. 


107 


themselves.  The  rest  they  transported  first  to  Holland,  where  it 
was  refined  by  Dutch  capital,  after  which  Dutch  vessels  distributed 
it  to  various  European  countries.  In  either  case  the  effect  upon 
the  English  market  was  the  same,  namely,  the  increase  of  sugar 
in  England  by  reason  of  the  falling  off  in  her  market  outside  her 
borders.^* 

One  other  influence  affecting  the  supply  of  sugar  in  England 
must  be  considered  here.  It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  the  sugar 
lands  in  Barbados  had  begun  before  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century  to  show  diminishing  returns.  One  of  the  most  crying 
evils  of  those  islands,  until  comparatively  recent  times,  was  the 
inadequate  manuring  and  fertilizing  of  their  soil.  This  was 
especially  the  case  when  the  English  sugar  planters,  already  bur- 
dened with  debt,  were  struggling  against  all  the  extra  hardships 
imposed  upon  them  by  the  English  colonial  policy.  As  early  as 
1661  the  Barbados  planters  began  to  protest  that  the  productive- 
ness of  their  island  was  waning.  "The  land,"  they  assert,  "is 
much  poorer  and  makes  much  less  sugar  than  heretofore  and 
much  worse.^®    In  1668  we  read :  "Barbados  contains  one  hundred 

"  It  is  true  that  in  large  measure  at  least  the  Dutch  activity  must  have 
annulled  in  itself  any  real  influence  which  it  might  have  had  upon  the 
English  domestic  market.  For  the  sugar  carried  direct  to  foreign  ports, 
or  to  foreign  ports  via  Holland,  obviously  never  reached  England,  and, 
therefore,  never  actually  swelled  the  amount  upon  the  English  market 
The  cutting  off  of  the  foreign  demand  for  sugar,  therefore,  met  this  market 
depleted  by  the  amount  carried  direct  to  other  countries,  and  the  resulting 
effect  on  price  must  have  been  the  same— or  in  large  measure  the  same— 
as  if  neither  of  the  phenomena  had  existed.  Inasmuch,  however,  as  the 
Dutch  carried  sugar  that  was  not  English,  they  did  have  a  very  real  effect 
upon  the  price  of  sugar  in  England.  The  complaints  against  the  Dutch 
came,  naturally,  from  the  English  traders  and  refiners  whose  profits  were 
thus  cut  off  by  the  Dutch  industry  in  those  fields.  The  persistency  with 
which  the  planters  employed  Dutch  vessels,  and  with  which,  especially 
later,  the  Colonies  of  North  America  used  foreign  sugars,  show  clearly 
that  it  was  greatly  to  their  advantage  to  do  so.  For  the  actual  consumer 
m  England  it  made,  most  probably,  very  little  real  difference. 

"Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Colonial,  1661-1668,  p.  45-  The  President 
and  Council  of  Barbados  here  declare  that  "they  fear  that  the  condition 
of  the  island  has  been  represented  to  the  King  far  richer  than  it  is,  and 


io8 


SUGAR  AS  A   COMMODITY. 


thousand  acres  and  renders  not  by  two-thirds  its  former  produc- 
tion by  acres.  The  land  is  almost  worn  out,  and  the  thickets 
where  cotton  and  com  are  planted  are  so  burnt  up  that  the  inhab- 
itants are  ready  to  desert  their  plantations."  Nevis  is  also  declared 
in  this  same  article  to  be  "much  decayed  by  long  settling."^®  ^^ 

In  1 671  the  Assembly  of  Barbados  addressed  a  letter  to  the 
"Gentlemen  Planters  in  London,"  which  gives  in  summary  a 
graphic  account  of  the  state  of  Barbados  at  that  ^te.  In  the 
letter  they  enclosed  a  petition  to  the  King,  which  "sheweth" : 

"That  they  have  been  informed  of  some  motions  in  the  last  session  of 
Parliament  for  Increasing  the  Custome  on  Sugars  the  chief  produce  of 
this  yo»"  Mary's  Island,  and  haveing  by  very  grievous  experience  found 
that  length  of  time  hath  soe  much  impoverisht  their  Lands  that  notwith- 
standing their  vaste  and  endless  Labours  in  Improvements  they  yet 
remaine  near  Barren  and  unfruitfull,  the  timber  and  wood  made  use  of 
and  destroyed**  and  the  difficulties  in  making  that  commodity  so  much 
Increased  as  its  Valine  hath  of  late  yeares  Lessen'd.    .    .    ."  " 

Coupled  with  this  natural  decline  in  the  productiveness  of  the 
soil  in  the  small  and  overworked  island  of  Barbados  there  was  the 
enforced  abandonment  of  estates  by  impoverished  planters  borne 
down  by  debt  and  unable  to  pay  the  heavy  exactions  of  the 

that  offers  have  been  made  to  raise  taxes  greater  than  the  people  can  w«ll 
bear  which  would  grieve  his  good  subjects  in  Barbados." 

"Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Colonial,  1661-1668,  p.  586. 

"About  this  same  time,  also,  "several  planters  belonging  to  His 
Majesty's  sugar  plantations"  petition  the  Council  for  Plantations  to  the 
following  effect:  "That  the  growth  of  said  plantations  has  diminished 
%  and  the  charge  of  making  sugar  has  much  increased,  by  reason 
whereof  the  English  planter  finds  little  or  no  recompense  for  hazard  and 
labour/'— Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Colonial,  1669-1674,  p.  129. 

"This  statement  is  the  more  remarkable,  and  indicative  of  the  extent 
to  which  the  land  of  Barbados  must  have  been  put  to  sugar  planting, 
when  it  is  remembered  that  at  the  first  coming  of  the  English,  virgin 
forest  covered  the  entire  island.  Such  also  was  the  character  of  the 
growth  that  it  was  almost  impossible  for  the  first  settlers  to  clear  enough 
of  the  ground  to  plant  the  necessary  food  supply,  and  when  the  trees  were 
felled  the  colonists  were  often  obliged  to  plant  in  among  their  branches 
as  they  lay  upon  the  ground,  because  by  reason  of  their  enormous  size  they 
were  unable  to  remove  them.     ( See  Ligon,  1.  c,  p.  24) . 

*  Colonial  Entry  Book,  Vol.  13,  pp.  88,  89, 


m 


•J:^ 


U 


THE  SUPPLY  OF  SUGAR  IN  ENGLAND. 


109 


English  Government.  Butel-Dumont  states  that  in  the  eight  years 
during  which  the  act  of  James  II  was  in  force  more  than  forty 
mills  in  Barbados  were  abandoned,  and  planters  everywhere  were 
reduced  to  great  extremities.^*  These  two  forces,  therefore — ^the 
decreasing  productivity  of  the  cultivated  lands  by  reason  of  the 
working  of  the  law  of  diminishing  returns  and  the  decreasing 
extent  of  these  cultivated  lands  by  reason  of  the  enforced  aban- 
donment of  estates — these  two  forces  together  imposed  a  check 
upon  the  rate  of  increase  in  the  amounts  of  sugar  sent  from  the 
sugar  islands  to  England.  The  Navigation  Acts  fell  more  heavily 
on  Barbados  than  on  her  neighbors,  because  of  her  dense  popula- 
tion and  her  already  hard-worked  soil.  All  her  resources  were 
being  drawn  on  before  the  final  blow  came,  so  that  in  the  time  of 
depression  she  had  no  reserve  force  upon  which  to  call. 

Jamaica,  on  the  other  hand,  was,  as  already  noted,"  producing 
increasing  quantities  of  sugar  in  these  years.  In  1673  Lieutenant 
Governor  Lynch  writes  to  the  Council  for  Plantations  that  "if 
Jamaica  have  easy  government,  be  defended  from  enemies  and 
supplied  with  negroes  and  servants  and  have  no  privateering,  in 
six  years  it  may  produce  as  much  sugar  as  Barbados,  which 
island  lessens  every  year  both  in  quantity  and  quality,  while  those 
of  Jamaica  improve  in  both,  so  that  their  sugars  are  sold  at  30  per 
cent,  more  than  theirs."^*  From  this  it  is  evident  that  the  effect 
which  conditions  in  Barbadoes  were  having  on  the  English  sugar 
market  were  being  in  great  measure  counteracted  by  the  increasing 
sugar  culture  in  Jamaica. 

In  comparing  all  these  various  circumstances  of  the  English 
sugar  market  one  readily  understands  the  falHng  prices  of  sugar 
and  the  complaints  of  the  planters  and  refiners  concerning  the  glut 
of  their  sugars  in  England.  It  becomes  clear  how  it  was  that,  as 
these  phenomena  indicate,  the  amount  of  sugar  in  England  re- 
mained at  a  progressive  ratio  ahead  of  the  demand.  The  English 
supply  was  growing  constantly  larger  by  the  natural  increase  from 

""Histoire  et  Commerx;e  des  Antilles  Angloises,"  attribue  a  M.  Butd- 
Dumont,  1758,  p.  215. 

•  See  ante,  pp.  98,  99- 

*  Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Colonial,  1669-1674,  P-  477- 


no 


SUGAR  AS  A   COMMODITY. 


THE  SUPPLY  01^  SUGAR   IN   ENGLAND. 


Ill 


the  colonies,  in  particular  Jamaica,  as  well  as  by  reason  of  the 
great  quantities  thrown  back  upon  England  by  the  failure  of  her 
market  abroad.  It  is  true  that  in  some  islands,  as  in  Barbados, 
the  law  of  diminishing  returns  was  setting  in;  but  this  was 
operative  for  a  relatively  small  part  of  the  entire  sugar-producing 
area.  As  the  supply  of  sugar  in  England  increased,  and  the  prices 
fell,  sugar,  formerly  a  costly  luxury,  became  more  and  more 
accessible  to  the  great  majority  in  England,  among  whom  the 
desire  for  it  was  already  strong.  At  the  end  of  that  era  it  was, 
properly  speaking,  an  article  of  regular  consumption  among  JJie 
English  people. 


up  with  the  sugar  culture  there  as  were  the  Navigation  Acts  with 
the  trade  in  sugar,  and  neither  of  these  questions  can  be  properly 
understood  apart  from  that  one  to  which  they  are  allied.  For 
present  purposes,  however,  reference  to  these  subjects  has  been 
restricted  to  those  aspects  in  which  they  have  exerted  an  influence 
directly  upon  the  actual  conditions  of  the  demand  for  sugar  or  of 
the  sugar  supply,  and  so  indirectly  upon  the  main  investigation 
of  the  paper,  namely,  the  history  of  sugar  as  a  commodity. 


I 


Conclusion. 

With  this  point  reached,  the  goal  indicated  at  the  beginning  of 
this  paper  as  its  ultimate  aim  has  been  attained.  Through  the 
events  reviewed  in  these  pages  sugar  has  traversed  the  pathways 
of  geography  from  India  to  America,  in  migration  and  conquest 
and  exchange.  In  the  course  of  this  westward  advance,  also,  the 
commodity  sugar  has  run  its  economic  course  as  well.  From  the 
pharmacopoeia  of  the  physician  it  has  passed  by  successive  stages 
to  the  table  of  the  average  Englishman  who  has  come  to  regard 
the  addition  which  it  makes  to  his  daily  food  as  one  of  the  con- 
ditions of  his  happiness.  Sugar  has,  in  short,  passed  forever  from 
the  lists  of  superfluities  in  which  it  stood  at  the  beginning  of  the 
paper,  and  has  assumed  the  humbler  role  of  a  necessity  of  life,  as 
that  term  is  commonly  conceived. 

In  tracing  the  history  of  sugar  the  subject  of  the  research  has 
been  very  carefully  adhered  to,  all  subsidiary  questions,  such  as 
taxation  and  the  regulation  of  the  sugar  trade,  having  been  almost 
entirely  omitted.  These  must  remain  for  future  investigations  in 
this  field,  when  the  subdivisions  of  the  sugar  question  will  be 
dealt  with  at  length.  In  such  a  study  the  attention  will  center  in 
the  various  problems  of  production  and  exchange,  as  it  has  here 
gathered  especially  about  the  phenomenon  of  consumption,  and 
the  subjects  of  taxation  and  slavery  will  be  duly  emphasized  and 
examined.    Slavery  was  in  the  West  Indies  as  inextricably  bound 


m 


I^V 


41 


1^' 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
I.    Authorities  Read  and  Consulted. 

A.    Theoretical. 

Seligman.    "The  Economic  Interpretation  of  History,"  1902. 

Bohm-Bawerk.    "Positive  Theory  of  Capital,"  1891. 

Pantaleoni.    "Pure  Economics,"  1898. 

Clar^.    "The  Philosophy  of  Wealth,"  1892. 

Senior.    "Political  Economy,"  1872. 

Keasbey.     "Prestige  Value."     Reprinted  from  the  Quarterly  Journal  of 

Economics,  May,  1903,  Vol.  XVII. 
Irons.    "A  Study  of  the  Psychology  of  Ethics,"  1903. 
Royce.    "Outlines  of  Psychology,"  1903. 


B.    Historical. 

Lavisse  et  Rambaud.    "Histoire  Generale,"  1894. 

Prescott.  "Ferdinand  and  Isabella."  Edited  by  John  Foster  Kirk, 
Philadelphia. 

Moses.  "The  Economic  Condition  of  Spain  in  the  Sixteenth  Century." 
Published  in  the  Annual  Report  of  the  American  Historical  Asso- 
ciation, 1893. 

Payne.    "History  of  the  New  World  called  America,"  1892. 

Herrera.     "Description  des  Indes  Occidentales  qu'on  appelle  aujourd'hui 
le  Nouveau  Monde."    Translated  into  French,  1622. 
"General  History  of  the  Vast  Continent  and  Islands  of  America  com- 
monly called  the  West  Indies  from  the  First  Discovery  Thereof." 
Translated  into  English  by  Captain  John  Stevens,  in  6  volumes,  2d 
edition,  1740. 

Churchill.  "A  Collection  of  Voyages  and  Travels  now;  first  published  in 
England,"  London,  1746.  Six  volumes.  Vol.  Ill  contains  a  "Descrip- 
tion of  the  Caribby  Islands,"  by  Herrera. 

Las  Casas.  "CEuvres  de  don  Barthelemi  de  las  Casas."  With  preface  and 
notes  by  M.  Llorente,  Vols.  I  and  II,  1822. 

Geo.  Ed.  Ellis.  "Las  Casas  and  the  Relations  of  the  Spaniards  to  the 
Indians,"  Winsor,  "Narrative  and  Critical  History,"  Vol.  II,  299. 

Winsor.    "Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America,"  1888. 

Peter  Martyr.  "The  Historie  of  the  West  Indies  containing  the  Actes  and 
Adventures  of  the  Spaniards  which  have  Conquered  and  Peopled 


8 


(113) 


114 


SUGAR  AS  A  COMMODITY. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


"5 


those  Countries."    Published  in  Latin  by  Mr  Hakluyt,  and  translated 

into  English  by  Mr.  Lok,  Gent. 
Alexander   von    Humboldt     "De   Distributione   Geographica    Plantamm 

secundum  Coeli  Temperiam  et  Altitudinem  Montium,"  1817. 
•*Essai  Politique  de  Hie  de  Cuba/'  1826. 
Dr.  V.  de  Roches.    "Cuba  Under  Spanish  Rule." 
'*The  First  Three  English  Books  on  America."  Compilation  by  Richard 

Eden,  of  P.  Martyr,  of  Anghiera ;  Sebastian  Minister,  and  Sebastian 

Cabot. 
Hakluyt.     "The  Voyages  of  the  English  Nation  to  America  Before  the 

Year   1600."     From   Hakluyt's  "Collection   of  Voyages,"   Edmund 

Goldsind,  editor,  1889. 
"Hakluyt's  Voyages,"  James  MacLehose  &  Sons,  Glasgow,  190+ 
Purchas.    "His  Pilgrimes,"  1625.    Book  V,  "Voyages  and  Travels  to  and 

in  the  New  World  called  America." 
"His  Pilgrimage  or  Relations  of  the  World,"   1614.     In  four  parts. 

Part  I,  Book  VHI,  "Relations  of  Discoveries,  Regions  and  Religions 

of  the  New  World,"  pp.  717-735. 
Br>'an  Edwards.    "History  of  the  British  Colonies  in  the  West  Indies," 

iooo> 
Southey.    "The  Chronological  History  of  the  West  Indies,"  1827, 
Douglass.  Dr.  William.     "Summary,  Historical  and  Political  of  the  First 

Planting  of  our  American  Settlements,"  circ.  1750. 
Oldmixon,    "British  Empire  in  America,"  1741. 
Martin.    "History  of  the  West  Indies,"  1836. 
Thomas,  Sir  Dalby.    "Rise  and  Growth  of  the  West  India  Collonies  and 

of  the  Great  Advantages  they  are  to  England  in  Respect  to  Trade," 

London,  1690.    Printed  in  the  Harleian  Miscellany,  Vol  II,  London, 

1808- 1813. 
Btitel-Dumont     (attribue    a).      "Histoire    et    Commerce    des    Antilles 

Angloises,"  1758. 
Schomburgk.    "History  of  Barbados,"  1848. 
Ligon.     "A  True  and  Exact  History  of  Barbados,"  by  Richard  Ligon, 

Gent,  1673- 
Clarke,  Samuel.    "A  Mirrour  or  Looking  Glasse."  Vol.  II,  Account  of 

Barbados,  1670. 
Davis,  N.  Darnell.    "Cavaliers  and  Roundheads  of  Barbadoes,"  1887. 
Long.    "The  History  of  Jamaica,"  1774. 
Davy,  John.     "The  West  Indies  Before  and  Since  Slave  Emancipation, 

Comprising  the  Windward  and  Leeward  Isles,"  1854. 
Anderson.    "Treatise  on  Commerce,"  1787. 
Macpherson.    "Annals  of  Commerce,"  1805. 
Craik    "The  History  of  British  Commerce,"  1844. 


m 


Cunningham.  "The  Growth  of  English  Industry  and  Commerce,"  in  one 
volume,  1885. 

"The  Growth  of  English  Industry  and  Commerce,"  in  two  volumes. 
Vol.  I,  Early  and  Middle  Ages,  1890.    Vol.  II,  Modern  Times,  1892, 
Herbert    "The  Livery  Companies  of  London,"  1837. 
Gross.    "The  Gild  Merchant"  Vol.  I,  1890. 
Egerton.    "Origin  and  Growth  of  English  Commerce,"  1899. 

"A  Short  History  of  British  Colonial  Policy,"  1897. 
Warner.    "Landmarks  in  English  Industrial  History,"  1899. 
Woodward.    "Expansion  of  the  British  Empire,"  1902. 
Price.    "English  Commerce  and  Industry,"  1900. 
Hewins.    "EngHsh  Trade  and  Finance,"  1892. 
Gibbins,  H.  de  B.    "Industry  in  England,"  1896. 
Andrews.    "History  of  England,"  1903. 
Rogers,  Thorold.    "Six  Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages,"  New  York. 

"History  of  Agriculture  and  Prices  in  England,"  1866-1887. 

"Economic  Interpretation  of  History,"  1888. 
Shaw.    "The  History  of  Currency,"  1896. 

Bruce.    "Economic  History  of  Virginia  in  the  Seventeenth  Century,"  1896. 
Weeden.    "Economic  and  Social  History  of  Newi  England,"  1890. 
Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Colonial. 
Ashley,  John.    "The  Sugar  Trade  with  the  Incumbrances  Thereon  Laid 

Open,"  1734. 
Gee,  Joshua.    "The  Trade  and  Navigation  of  Great  Britain  Considered," 

6th  edition,  1760. 
Young,  William.    "West  India  Commonplace  Book,"  1807. 
Child,  Sir  Josiah.  "A  Discourse  of  Trade,  Coyn  and  Paper  Credit,  &c.,"  1625. 
Marshall.    Statistics  of  Great  Britain. 
Grey,  Earl.    "The  Colonial  Policy  of  Lord  John  Russell's  Administration," 

1853. 

Cromwell's  Acts.  "A  Book  of  Values  of  Mdse.  imported,  according  to 
which  Excize  is  to  be  paid  by  the  first  buyer,"  1657. 

Reed,  William.    "History  of  Sugar  and  of  Sugar-bearing  Plants,"  1866. 

Falconer,  W.  "Sketch  of  the  History  of  Sugar  in  Early  Times  and 
Through  the  Middle  Ages."  In  Memoirs  of  the  Literary  and  Philo- 
sophical Society  of  Manchester,  Vol.  IV,  Part  II,  pp.  291-301,  1796. 

Roth,  H.  Ling.    "A  Guide  to  the  Literature  of  Sugar." 

Phillips,  Henry.     "History  of  Cultivated  Vegetables,"  1822. 

Moseley,  Dr.  Benj.    Essay  on  Sugar,  in  "Medical  Essays,"  1799. 

Ritter,  Karl.  "tJber  die  Geographische  Verbreitung  des  Zuckerrohrs 
{Saccharum  OMcinarum)  in  der  alten  Welt  vor  dessen  Verpflanzung 
in  die  Neue  Welt."  Published  in  1841,  in  the  "Philologische  und 
historische  Abhandlungen  der  KonigHchen  Akademie  der  Wissen- 
schaften  zu  Berlin,  aus  dem  Jahre  1839." 


..  ,i 


Ii6 


SUGAR  AS  A   COMMODITY. 


In  addition  to  the  historical  references  here  named  I  have,  through  the 
kindness  of  Miss  Grace  Albert,  had  access  to  some  excerpts  from  the 
Treasury  Board  Papers,  the  Colonial  Entry  Book,  the  Manuscript  Rawlin- 
son  in  the  Bodleian  Library,  and  the  Colonial  Papers.  For  these  I  desire 
to  express  my  sincere  thanks. 

C.    Geographical. 

Alexander  von  Humboldt.     "The  Island  of  Cuba,"  1825.     Translated  by 

Thrasher,  1856. 
"Personal  Narratives  of  Travels  to  the  Equinoctial  Regions  of  America 

in  1799-1804."    Translated  by  Thomasina  Ross.    1852-1853. 
Bonsai,  Stephen.    "The  Real  Condition  of  Cuba  To-day,"  1897. 
TurnbuU.    "Travels  in  West-Cuba,  with  Notes  of  Porto  Rico  and  the  Slave 

Trade,"  1840. 
Hazard.    "Cuba,  with  Pen  andTencil."  1871. 
Flinter.    "An  Account  of  the  Present  State  of  Porto  Rico,"  1834. 
Beckford.    "A  Descriptive  Account  of  the  Island  of  Jamaica,  with  Remarks 

Upon  the  Cultivation  of  Sugar,"  1790. 
Sloan.    "A  Voyage  to  the  Islands  Madera,  Barbados,  Nevis,  St.  Christo- 
pher, and  Jamaica,  with  the  Natural  History  of  Jamaica,"  1707. 
Bellin.     "Description  Geographique  des  Isles  Antilles  possedees  par  les 

Anglais,"  1758. 
Labat    "Nouveau  Voyage  aux  lies  de  I'Amerique,"  1747- 
Hughes.  Griffith.    "The  Natural  History  of  Barbados,"  1750. 
Morris,    Daniel:      "Bulletin    of     Miscellaneous    Information— Economic 

Resources  of  West  Indies,"  1887. 

D.    Technical. 

dc  Candolle.    "Origine  des  Plantes  Cultivees,"  1886. 

Simmonds.    "Tropical  Agriculture,"  1877- 

Abel,  Mary  Hinman.    "Sugar  as  Food."    Farmers'  Bulletin  No.  93.  U.  S. 

Dept.  Agriculture,  1899.  ^^  tt    o   t^    * 

Benton,  Frank.     "Bee  Keeping."    Farmers'  Bulletin  No.  59,  U.  S.  Dept 

Agriculture,  1897. 
United   States  Dept.  Agriculture.     Special  Report  No.    i.       Cane-bugar 

Industry,"  1877- 
Figuier.    "Les  Merveilles  de  I'lndustrie." 
Dcrosne.     "De  la  Fabrication  du  Sucre  aux  Colonies  et  des  Nouveaux 

Appareils  propres  a  ameliorer  cette  Fabrication,"  1843. 
Wray.    "The  Practical  Sugar  Planter,"  1848. 
Roughley.    "Jamaica  Planter's  Guide,"  1823. 
Barlow.     "A   Treatise   on   the    Manufactures   and    Machinery   of   Great 

Britain,"  1836. 


BIBUOGRAPHY. 


117 


Belgrov^.    "A  Treatise  upon  Husbandry  or  Planting,"  1755- 

Whitehouse.      "Agricola's    Letters    and    Essays    on    Sugar    Farming    in 

Jamaica,"  1845. 
Martin,  Samuel.    "An  Essay  upon  Plantership,"  humbly  inscribed  to  his 

Excellency  Geo.  Thomas,  Esq.,  5th  edition,  1773. 
Griffin.    "The  Sugar  Industry  and  Legislation  in  Europe."    Pubhshed  in 

Quarterly  Journal  of  Economics,  1902-1903,  Vol.  XVII. 
Rutter.     "The    Sugar    Question    in    the    United    States."     Published    in 

Quarterly  Journal  of  Economics,  1902-1903,  Vol.  XVII. 

II.    Additional  Authorities  Quoted. 

Macaulay.    "History  of  England,"  Harper  &  Bros.,  New  York,  1879. 
Lamprecht,  Karl.    "Zur  jungsten  deutschen  Vergangenheit,"  1903,  II  Band, 

Erste  Halfte. 
Marshall.    "Principles  of  Economics,"  1890. 
Patten.    "Development  of  English  Thought." 
Bacon,  Lord.    Works,  Philadelphia,  1842. 
Smith,  Adam.    "The  Wealth  of  Nations."    Edited  by  Thorold  Rogers,  1869. 


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